Using biotechnology derived from fireflies and seaweed, Johns Hopkins researchers are developing radiopaque stem cells for targeted delivery of therapy in patients with peripheral arterial disease. The technique may allow guidance and tracking of stem cell injections meant to grow new blood vessels and offer a way to confirm therapy response.
Radiologist Dr. Dara L. Kraitchman and colleagues used bone marrow stem cells treated with gene-containing biofluorescent proteins found naturally in fireflies. They enclosed them in alginate capsules treated with perfluorooctyl bromide to make them visible on x-ray. After injecting the encapsulated cells in the legs of rabbits, researchers found they could track their delivery in vivo using C-arm CT guidance. The capsule then released the stem cells at the targeted site where their viability was monitored with bioluminescence imaging. Kraitchman described her findings at SIR 2009.
