Labeling of adult stem cells for in vivo-application in the human heart
J.M.I. Wiehe1, O. Zimmermann1, J. Greiner2, J.M. Homann1, M. Wiesneth3, V. Hombach1 and J. Torzewski1
1Department of Internal Medicine II, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany, 2Department of Internal Medicine III, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany and 3Department for Clinical Transfusion Medicine and Immunogenetics, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany
Offprint requests to: Jan Torzewski, MD, M.phil, University of Ulm, Department of Internal Medicine II-Cardiology, Robert Koch Str.8, 89081 Ulm, Germany. e-mail: jan.torzewski@medizin.uni-ulm.de
Summary. Tissue regeneration with human hematopoietic or mesenchymal stem cells has become a fashionable research topic. In cardiology, intracoronary injection of adult stem cells has already been used for the treatment of human myocardial infarction and ischemic cardiomyopathy. The experimental background of such therapies, however, i.e. the potential of adult stem cells to regenerate myocardium through “transdifferentiation” of hematopoietic or mesenchymal stem cells into cardiomyocytes described in animal models, has recently been challenged by other experimental data. Nonetheless, clinical trials are continuing. This may be due to the fact that, in open-labeled pilot trials, a benefit of intracoronary injection of adult stem cells for the treatment of myocardial infarction has been described. As pilot trials may overemphasize the beneficial effects of intracoronary injection of bone marrow stem cells, controled double-blinded randomised multicenter studies are warranted. Furthermore, a careful characterization of the cells involved in the proposed cardiac repair as well as in vivo-monitoring of such cells following intracoronary injection in humans might help to answer many essential questions linked to this important research topic. The latter requires biocompatible labeling. This review focusses on the technologies available for stem cell labeling and summarizes the arguments and contra-arguments to use these labeling technologies for application in humans. Histol Histopathol 20, 901-906 (2005)
Key words: Hematopoietic stem cells, In vivo imaging, Homing, Transdifferentiation
DOI: 10.14670/HH-20.901