Current challenges for the targeted delivery and molecular imaging of stem cells in animal models.
In contrast to conventional, molecular medicine that focuses on targeting specific pathways, stem cell therapy aims to perturb many related mechanisms in order to derive therapeutic benefit. This emerging modality is inherently complex due to the variety of cell types that can be used, delivery approaches that need to be optimized in order to target the cellular therapeutic to specific sites in vivo, and non-invasive imaging methods that are needed to monitor cell fate. This review highlights advancements in the field, with focus on recent publications that use preclinical animal models for cardiovascular stem cell therapy. It highlights studies where cell adhesion engineering (CAE) has been used to functionalize stem cells to home them to sites of therapy, much like peripheral blood neutrophils. It also describes the current state of molecular imaging approaches that aim to non-invasively track the spatio-temporal pattern of stem cell delivery in living subjects.
a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering , University at Buffalo (State University of New York) , Furnas Hall, Buffalo , NY , USA.|b Clinical and Translation Research Center (CTRC) , University at Buffalo (State University of New York) , NY , USA.
Arezoo
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8463-4008
A
Momeni
a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering , University at Buffalo (State University of New York) , Furnas Hall, Buffalo , NY , USA.|b Clinical and Translation Research Center (CTRC) , University at Buffalo (State University of New York) , NY , USA.
Sriram
S
Neelamegham
a Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering , University at Buffalo (State University of New York) , Furnas Hall, Buffalo , NY , USA.|b Clinical and Translation Research Center (CTRC) , University at Buffalo (State University of New York) , NY , USA.
Natesh
N
Parashurama
D000818:Animals; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy*; D058948:Cell Tracking / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005544:Forecasting; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
cell adhesion; glycoengineering; mesenchymal stem cells; molecular imaging; multimodality imaging; reporter gene imaging; selectin; targeted delivery