Iron microparticles to aid stem-cell research

Our researchers need to be doing the same thing to track stem cells in the brain, that way they could see if the scaffolding for them works and if they have enough blood flow to survive. Who's going to run with this idea?
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Researchers from the University of Edinburgh have successfully labeled cells with tiny iron particles, enabling them to be tracked in the body with an MRI scan, an accomplishment that should aid stem-cell research for heart disease [1].

The research is reported in a paper published online July 10, 2012 in Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging.

Senior author Dr David Newby (Edinburgh University, Scotland) explained to heartwire that one of the major stumbling blocks in stem-cell research has been the inability to monitor where the cells end up after being injected into the body. "We don't know if the stem cells get taken up by the target tissue and behave like that tissue as desired or if they are distributed around the body. This is a major issue for the whole field of stem-cell research."

He noted that cells can be labeled with a radioactive tracer, but this is not ideal as it introduces radioactivity into the body and the tracer decays quite quickly, lasting only a couple of hours.

Newby and colleagues came up with the solution of introducing iron microparticles about 50 nm in diameter into cells and then tracking them inside the body with an MRI scan. "We can see where the cells are for weeks, even months, after injection. I envisage that these particles will be an important part of the tool kit for stem-cell-therapy research," Newby told heartwire.

In the initial studies reported, the researchers showed that injecting immune cells with dextran-coated superparamagnetic particles of iron oxide (SPIO) was safe and did not interfere with cell function. In small-scale tests in humans, they found that labeled cells were traceable as many as seven days later and had no negative effects. In a healthy volunteer model, cutaneous inflammation was induced in the thigh by intradermal injection of tuberculin, and labeled cells given by IV injection were shown to travel to the inflamed skin and were detectable on MRI scanning.

The authors note that this is the first report of successful magnetic-resonance cell tracking in humans following systemic administration of cells, adding that the cells can be imaged at clinical MRI field strengths. "This technique therefore has the potential to track the distribution, time course, and fate of cells administered systemically as part of cell therapy: a critical component of the development of cellular therapeutic strategies and ultimately of monitoring the success of treatment," they conclude.