Long-Term, Noninvasive In Vivo Tracking of Progenitor Cells Using Multimodality Photoacoustic, Optical Coherence Tomography, and Fluorescence Imaging.
Van Phuc NguyenWen FanTianye ZhuWei QianYanxiu LiBing LiuWei ZhangJessica HenrySongtao YuanXueding WangYannis M PaulusPublished in: ACS nano (2021)
Stem cell regenerative medicine therapies have emerged as promising treatments for currently incurable diseases. A remaining challenge for cell therapies is the ability to track the migration and distribution of the transplanted cells in a long-term, noninvasive manner in vivo to assess their efficacy. This study develops a noninvasive, and high spatial resolution photoacoustic microscopy (PAM) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system for in vivo tracking of subretinally injected progenitor human retinal pigment epithelium cells (ARPE-19) labeled with chainlike gold nanoparticle (CGNP) clusters in RPE damage. CGNP provided significant PAM, OCT, and fluorescence signals to selectively track the migration of ARPE-19 cells in living rabbit eyes for 3 months. PAM and OCT imaging allow accurate anatomical information to determine the exact retinal layer in which the transplanted ARPE-19 cells are located which was confirmed by histology. This presents an efficient and advanced technology to visualize fundamental biological processes of cell therapies in complex in vivo environments in real time.
Keyphrases
- optical coherence tomography
- induced apoptosis
- fluorescence imaging
- diabetic retinopathy
- cell cycle arrest
- stem cells
- high resolution
- oxidative stress
- photodynamic therapy
- single molecule
- optic nerve
- computed tomography
- cell proliferation
- endothelial cells
- cell therapy
- single cell
- cell death
- high throughput
- social media
- pi k akt
- mesenchymal stem cells
- signaling pathway
- quantum dots
- endoplasmic reticulum stress