title: Clinical hurdles for the transplantation of cardiomyocytes derived from human embryonic stem cells: role of molecular imaging.
abstract: Over the past few years, human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) have gained popularity as a potentially ideal cell candidate for tissue regeneration. In particular, hESCs are capable of cardiac lineage-specific differentiation and confer improvement of cardiac function following transplantation into animal models. Although such data are encouraging, there remain significant hurdles before safe and successful translation of hESC-based treatment into clinical therapy, including the ability to assess cells following transplant. To this end, molecular imaging has proven a reliable methodology for tracking the long-term fate of transplanted cells. Imaging reporter genes that are introduced into the cells before transplantation enable non-invasive and longitudinal studies of cell viability, location and behaviour in vivo. Therefore, molecular imaging is expected to play an increasing role in characterizing the biology and physiology of hESC-derived cardiac cells in living subjects.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Imaging Program at Stanford, Department of Radiology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
authors.forename: Rutger-Jan
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Swijnenburg
authors.forename: Koen Ea
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: van der Bogt
authors.forename: Ahmad Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Sheikh
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Joseph C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D002454:Cell Differentiation; D019070:Cell Lineage; D053595:Embryonic Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D017930:Genes, Reporter; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D008163:Luminescent Measurements; D015335:Molecular Probes; D032383:Myocytes, Cardiac / Q000637:transplantation*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography
chemical_list: D015335:Molecular Probes; D019788:Fluorodeoxyglucose F18; D049452:Green Fluorescent Proteins