Image analysis in In Vivo Stem Cell Tracking

Regenerative medicine has begun to define a new perspective of future clinical practice. The lack of basic data regarding to basic stem cell biology-survival, migration, differentiation, integration in a real time manner when transplanted into damaged tissue remains a major challenge for design stem cell therapies. So, visualization of injected stem cells provides additional insight into the future therapeutic benefits. Although current imaging modalities including magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography, bioluminescence imaging, and fluorescence imaging offer some morphological as well as functional information, they lack the ability to assess and track in vivo biological phenomenon, a pivotal link for greater mechanistic understanding following cell-based intervention. This review will therefore discuss currently available in vivo imaging modalities and image processing techniques which may potentiate this field of research.