Acute myocardial infarction has a high mortality rate.(1) In clinical and experimental settings the cell therapy has shown potential to improve myocardial function after infarction. (2,3) The mechanisms underlying the changes cells undergo after transplantation are still largely unknown. Therefore, the inability to detect transplanted cells in clinical trials is a major restriction for evaluating outcome. The objective of this study was to investigate radiological-pathological correlation of acute cell homing in myocardial infarction with MRI and super paramagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) labelled bone marrow derived...

An acute myocardial infarction was induced to a swine by ligating the circumflex artery. In vivo MRI was done an hour after SPIO labelled BMMCs delivery and ex vivo MRI after sacrificing the animal. Cardiac tissue was stained with Prussian blue. (Fig 1, 2)

A high spatial correlation was observed between labelled cells on MRI and histology (Table1). Corresponding to the macrosopic observation and histology, altered kinesia and abnormalities were detected in MRI at the region perfused by the circumflex artery.

Cell targeting is feasible with a clinical MRI scanner, with clinical parameters. Imaging findings and tissue pathology show a high correlation. SPIO labelling potentially complicates the diagnostic evaluation of contrast enhanced MRI sequences when measuring the myocardial vitality.

1. Yusuf S, Hawken S, Ounpuu S, et al. Effect of potentially modifiable risk factors associated with myocardial infarction in 52 countries (the INTERHEART study): case-control study. Lancet 2004;364:937– 952 2. Wollert KC, Meyer GP, Ltz J, et al. Intracoronary autologous bone-marrow cell transfer after myocardial infarction: the BOOST randomized controlled clinical trial. Lancet 2004;364:141 – 148 3. Lee RH, Pulin AA, Seo MJ, Kota DJ, et al. Intravenous hMSCs improve myocardial infarction in mice because cells embolized in lung are activated to secrete the...

Riikka M. Korpi, MD1, Kirsi Alestalo, BM2, Ronald Borra, MD, PhD3,4, Fredrik Yannopoulos, MD2, Siri Lehtonen, PhD5, Elisa Lappi-Blanco, MD, PhD6, Vesa Anttila, MD, PhD2, Petri Lehenkari, MD, PhD2,5, Tatu Juvonen, MD, PhD2, Roberto B. Sequeiros, MD, PhD1 1Department of Radiology, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland 2Department of Surgery and Clinical Research Center, University of Oulu and Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland 3 Medical Imaging Center of Southwest Finland, University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland 4 A. A....