In vivo tracking of individual stem cells labeled with nanowire lasers using multimodality imaging

Xuzhou Li; Wei Zhang; Yanxiu Li; Xiaoqin Wu; Mingyang Wang; Xiaotian Tan; Yannis M Paulus; Xudong Fan; Xueding Wang

doi:10.1364/BOE.454558

In vivo tracking of individual stem cells labeled with nanowire lasers using multimodality imaging

Biomed Opt Express. 2022 Aug 11;13(9):4706-4717. doi: 10.1364/BOE.454558. eCollection 2022 Sep 1.

Authors

Xuzhou Li^{1

2

3}, Wei Zhang^{1

3}, Yanxiu Li^{4

5

3}, Xiaoqin Wu⁶, Mingyang Wang¹, Xiaotian Tan¹, Yannis M Paulus^{1

5

7}, Xudong Fan^{1

8}, Xueding Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
² Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA.
³ These authors contribute equally to this work.
⁴ Eye Center of Xiangya Hospital, Hunan Key Laboratory of Ophthalmology, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan 410008, China.
⁵ Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, 48105, USA.
⁶ Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Technology & Systems (Ministry of Education), Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China.
⁷ ypaulus@med.umich.edu.
⁸ xsfan@umich.edu.

Abstract

Emerging cell-based regenerative medicine and stem cell therapies have drawn wide attention in medical research and clinical practice to treat tissue damage and numerous incurable diseases. In vivo observation of the distribution, migration, and development of the transplanted cells is important for both understanding the mechanism and evaluating the treatment efficacy and safety. However, tracking the 3D migration trajectories for individual therapeutic cells in clinically relevant pathological environments remains technically challenging. Using a laser photocoagulation model in living rabbit eyes, this study demonstrates a multimodality imaging technology integrating optical coherence tomography (OCT), fluorescence microscopy (FM), and lasing emission for in vivo longitudinal tracking of the 3D migration trajectories of individual human retinal pigment epithelium cells (ARPE-19) labeled with CdS nanowires. With unique lasing spectra generated from the subtle microcavity differences, the surface-modified nanowires perform as distinct spectral identifiers for labeling individual ARPE-19 cells. Meanwhile, with strong optical scattering and natural fluorescence emission, CdS nanowires also served as OCT and FM contrast agents to indicate the spatial locations of the transplanted ARPE-19 cells. A longitudinal study of tracking individual ARPE-19 cells in rabbit eyes over a duration of 28 days was accomplished. This method could potentially promote an understanding of the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of implanted cells in the development of cell-based therapies.