Albertus M. Scheule, Tobias Walker, Vladimir Voth, K. Guo, Tim O. Greiner, R. Schäfer, Jakub Wiskirchen, R. Kehlbach, J. Pintaske, C D. Claussen, H. Northoff, Gerhard Ziemer.
University Hospital Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
Objective: Cellular cardiomyoplasty is performed by injection of stem or progenitor cells into the myocardium. Very recently, we developed a new molecular strategy for selection of MSCs by using aptamer-based technologies. We evaluated MRI tracking of newly isolated and freshly transplanted MSC in the heart using one short ex vivo selection step combining specific aptamer-based isolation and labeling of the cells.
Methods: 100 ml bone marrow were drawn from porcine femur and the MSCs were immediately isolated by aptamer-coated magnetic beads specific for porcine MSCs. The pig hearts were explanted and after ischemia, set up in a Langendorff model, and approx. 3 x 106 PKH26 stained aptamer-isolated cells were injected via a cannula into the RIVA. 20 h after cell transplantation, MRI of the heart using a clinical 3.0 Tesla whole body scanner was performed followed by histological examinations.
Results: The histological examination of the biopsies showed PKH26 positive cells within the perfused areas, whereas no cells could be detected in the control biopsies. MRI showed reproducible artifacts within the RIVA perfusion area with excellent quality The magnetic beads which were bound to the MSC-specific aptamers could not only be used for the cell separation but, also allowed a monitoring of the cell distribution and homing after transplantation by cardiac MRI with high imaging quality.
Conclusion: This study showed that magnetic separation and labeling of MSCs from bone marrow by specific aptamers is feasible, effective and could be easily performed intraoperatively and therefore, may have high potential in regenerative medicine.
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