In vivo echocardiographic imaging of transplanted human adult stem cells in the myocardium labeled with clinically applicable CliniMACS nanoparticles.
OBJECTIVE
Intramyocardial transplantation of bone marrow-derived cells is currently under clinical evaluation as a therapy of heart failure. A major limitation of all clinical studies dealing with myocardial cell engraftment is the inability to track the fate of the transplanted cells. We present a clinically applicable technique using transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) of CliniMACS nanoparticle labeled transplanted CD133+ cells in ischemic hearts.


RESULTS
CD133+ cells were isolated from human bone marrow by CliniMACS magnetic bead selection. Positive (5 x 10(6) cells) cells were transplanted into porcine ischemic myocardium (n = 6). Control animals (n = 5) received medium injection. TEE was performed to demonstrate the distribution of the cells during and 8 weeks after the procedure. Accumulations of labeled CD133+ cells of adjacent injections in the myocardium were discriminatively identified by TEE.


CONCLUSIONS
TEE is an elegant method for real-time documentation of successful transplantation and cell colony localization of magnetically labeled CD133+ cells in the ischemic myocardium. Our method should be of special interest for TEE-guided transcatheter injection of cells.
Bara
Christoph
C
Division of Thoracic- and Cardiovascular Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Hannover, Germany.
Ghodsizad
Alireza
A
Niehaus
Michael
M
Makoui
Mahyar
M
Piechaczek
Christoph
C
Martin
Ulrich
U
Warnecke
Gregor
G
Karck
Matthias
M
Gams
Emmeran
E
Klein
Hans Michael
HM
Haverich
Axel
A
Ruhparwar
Arjang
A
D000818:Animals; D002452:Cell Count / Q000379:methods; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D003287:Contrast Media; D004452:Echocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D017548:Echocardiography, Transesophageal / Q000379:methods*; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods; D018189:Immunomagnetic Separation / Q000379:methods; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000601:surgery*; D009206:Myocardium; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000032:analysis; D036102:Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods*; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D013552:Swine
D003287:Contrast Media