Pre- and postmortem imaging of transplanted cells

Abstract

Anna Andrzejewska,1 Adam Nowakowski,1 Miroslaw Janowski,1–4 Jeff WM Bulte,3–7 Assaf A Gilad,3,4 Piotr Walczak,3,4,8 Barbara Lukomska11NeuroRepair Department, 2Department of Neurosurgery, Mossakowski Medical Research Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland; 3Russell H Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Division of MR Research, 4Cellular Imaging Section and Vascular Biology Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, 5Department of Biomedical Engineering, 6Department of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, 7Department of Oncology, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 8Department of Radiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Warmia and Mazury, Olsztyn, PolandAbstract: Therapeutic interventions based on the transplantation of stem and progenitor cells have garnered increasing interest. This interest is fueled by successful preclinical studies for indications in many diseases, including the cardiovascular, central nervous, and musculoskeletal system. Further progress in this field is contingent upon access to techniques that facilitate an unambiguous identification and characterization of grafted cells. Such methods are invaluable for optimization of cell delivery, improvement of cell survival, and assessment of the functional integration of grafted cells. Following is a focused overview of the currently available cell detection and tracking methodologies that covers the entire spectrum from pre- to postmortem cell identification.Keywords: stem cells, transplantation, SPECT, MRI, bioluminescence, cell labeling