Magnetic resonance labeling of stem cells: is positive tracking a plus or a minus?

Abstract

Recent meta-analyses of clinical cellular therapy trials in cardiovascular disease have shown that these therapies are safe and perhaps yield a positive therapeutic benefit (1-5). However, 1 issue that has plagued these clinical studies is the inability to determine the percentage engraftment of exogenously administered stem cells and the stem cell fate. In this issue of iJACC, Adler et al. (6) propose a cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) contrast based on a paramagnetic agent, gadolinium, to track the engraftment of embryonic stem cell-derived cardiovascular progenitor cells.