Clinical labelling and bioimaging of transplanted autologous CD 133+ cells in patients with end stage ischemic cardiomyopathy

Intra-myocardial transplantation of bone marrow derived cells is currently under clinical evaluation as a therapy for heart failure. A major limitation of all clinical studies from myocardial restoration through cell transfer is the inability to track the fate of the transplanted cells. We present a clinically applicable technique using a usual applicable 1,5 Tesla resonance imaging (MRI) of nanoparticle-labelled transplanted human CD133- stem cells in patients with end stage heart failure.