ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Advances in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine over the last three decades have made great progress in the development of diagnostic and therapeutic methodologies for damaged tissues. However, regenerative medicine is still not the first line of treatment for patients due to limited understanding of the tissue regeneration process. Therefore, it is prerequisite to develop molecular imaging strategies combined with appropriate contrast agents to validate the therapeutic progress of damaged tissues. METHODS: The goal of this review is to discuss the progress in the development of near-infrared (NIR) contrast agents and their biomedical applications for labeling cells and scaffolds, as well as monitoring the treatment progress of native tissue in living organisms. We also discuss the design consideration of NIR contrast agents for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine in terms of their physicochemical and optical properties. RESULTS: The use of NIR imaging system and targeted contrast agents can provide high-resolution and high sensitivity imaging to track/monitor the in vivo fate of administered cells, the degradation rate of implanted scaffolds, and the tissue growth and integration of surrounding cells during the therapeutic period. CONCLUSION: NIR fluorescence imaging techniques combined with targeted contrast agents can play a significant role in regenerative medicine by monitoring the therapeutic efficacy of implanted cells and scaffolds which would enhance the development of cell therapies and promote their successful clinical translations.