Cardiac Cell Tracking with MRI Reporter Genes: Welcoming a New Field.
Research into cell therapy based cardiac repair and regeneration has experienced explosive growth over the last decade, however further progress is hindered by an inability to serially and non-invasively image cell survival and fate decisions following implantation. Recent advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) reporter gene techniques have enabledin vivoimaging of cell survival, proliferation, migration, and differentiation, however this has mostly been performed in stationary tissues. A small series of recent studies has examined the possibility of using MRI reporter genes to track the survival of cells injected into the heart following myocardial infarction. In this review, we seek to frame the emerging field of MRI reporter gene based cardiac cell tracking within the larger framework of the needs of cardiac regeneration therapy and the more established field of MRI cell tracking. While initial studies have demonstrated a promising ability to track the viability and proliferation of cells used for cell therapy, the ultimate goal of MR reporter gene imaging in the heart remains the ability to simultaneously correlate cell fate decisions with additional measures of structural and functional recovery.
Department of Physiology, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY USA ; Saha Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Kentucky, 741 South Limestone, BBSRB 355, Lexington, KY 40536 USA.
Moriel
M
Vandsburger
Cardiac repair; Cell tracking; Magnetic resonance imaging; Molecular imaging; Reporter gene