Molecular imaging in stem cell therapy / 中国组织工程研究

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND:Stem celltherapy research has been able to continue to observe the different types of stem cells, but there is stil no single imaging mode for a comprehensive evaluation of the effect of stem celltherapy. OBJECTIVE:To review the tracing of cellmarkers and imaging technology in stem celltherapy and to prospect the clinical application of molecular imaging in stem celltherapy. METHODS:The first author retrieved the PubMed for articles (January 2005 to December 2012) regarding application of molecular imaging in stem celltherapy, cellmarking methods and imaging technology, ideal imaging mode for stem celltherapy, and tracing of different stem cells using molecular imaging method. The key words were“molecular imaging, stem celltherapy, celltransplantation, regenerative medicine”in English. Twenty of 269 papers were included in result analysis. RESULTS AND CONCLUSION:At present, the ability to continuously monitor the biological processes of the transplanted stem cells relies on the histological analysis at different times. However, molecular imaging can observe in vivo complex system functions at the molecular, cellular, organ, and whole body level. As the technology improves, the change in the molecular level can be assessed in the context of the living organism. At the same time, a number of methods are available and meeting the demands to track stem cells by molecular imaging. Imaging technology increases the feasibility of stem celltherapy, and contributes to clarify the new biological mechanism during the stem celltherapy.