Targeted delivery of stem cells to ischemic myocardium using controllable microbubble carriers

Myocardium infarction (MI) and Heart failure (HF) are major causes of morbidity and mortality, and millions of MI and HF patients are treated by various medications, bypass surgery, or angioplasty. Such patients might benefit from novel tissue engineering strategies to accelerate the natural processes of vessel formation and repairing damaged tissues. The low transplantation efficiency and poor survivability of the migrated cells are the major limiting factors in the development and application of stem cell-based therapies. Hence, it is necessary to improve the engraftment rate. Intravenous injection is the simplest method of cell administration, but the degree to which that transplanted cells home to the heart after systemic administration and replace the damaged tissue is low.There are different techniques for improvement of the stem cells delivery such as manipulation of stem cells to express higher amount of chemokine receptors, modulation of the target tissues to secret higher level of the homing chemokines, intramyocardial or intracoronary injection of stem cells, and ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD).UTMD is a novel therapeutic application to enter into clinical trials and stem cell delivery. In this method, the stem cells attach to gas-filled microbubbles, and circulate through the intravascular space and are released by ultrasound within the targeted region. UTMD can be used as a non-invasive and efficient stem cell delivery approach to regenerate and repair myocardium infarction area.

Keywords:

Myocardium infarction , Stem cell delivery , Ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD)