MIPSMolecular ImagingProgram at Stanford

School of MedicineDepartment of Radiology

Stem Cell Therapy & Cardiovascular Molecular Imaging

Joseph Wu, MD, PhDDepartment of Medicine/Cardiology

Department of Radiology/Nuclear MedicineEmail: joewu@stanford.edu

Stanford

• Coronary heart disease is the #1 cause of morbidity and mortality in the US.

• CHF is the #1 cause of hospitalization for those age >65 yo.

• Annual health care costs related to cardiovascular diseases was ~ $220 billion last year.

• Stem cell transplant is a promising and exciting therapy.

Background

2004 American Heart Association UpdateOrlic D, et al. Nature 2001

• Bone marrow stem cells (BMSC)• Endothelial progenitor cells (EPC)• Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC)• Skeletal myoblasts (SKM)• Embryonic stem cells (ESC)• Cardiac stem cells (CSC)• Cardiac progenitor cells (isl1+)

Available Stem Cells

**Stem cells are capable of self-renewal, transformation into dedicated progenitor cells, and differentiation into specialized progeny

Wu JC et al, Circulation 2003

Imaging Embryonic Cardiomyoblasts Survival

Optical Imaging MicroPET Imaging

Imaging Bone

Marrow Stem Cells

Engraftment in Living Subjects

Ahmad Sheikh

horizontal coronal sagittal

[18F]-FHBG

[18F]-FDG

Fusion

0%ID/g

1%ID/g

0%ID/g

3%ID/g

PET Imaging of ESC Transplant

PET Imaging of Teratoma Formation and Selective Ablation by GCV Treatment

Feng Cao

Imaging ES Cell Differentiation into Cardiomyocytes

Nkx 2.5-eGFP 12 days after embryoid body differentiation

• Comparison of BMMNC vs MSC vs HSC• Imaging of stem cell migration & homing• Tissue engineering based on ESC • EPC and diabetic cardiomyopathy• Isolation of resident cardiac stem cells• SiRNA knockdown of gene expression

Other Projects