Current perspectives on imaging cardiac stem cell therapy

Molecular imaging is a new discipline that makes possible the noninvasive visualization of cellular and molecular processes in living subjects. In the field of cardiovascular regenerative therapy, imaging cell fate after transplantation is a high priority in both basic research and clinical translation. For cell-based therapy to truly succeed, we must be able to track the locations of delivered cells, the duration of cell survival, and any potential adverse effects. The insights gathered from basic research imaging studies will yield valuable insights into better designs for clinical trials. This review highlights the different types of stem cells used for cardiovascular repair, the development of various imaging modalities to track their fate in vivo, and the challenges of clinical translation of cardiac stem cell imaging in the future.