Microstructural Impact of Ischemia and Bone Marrow–Derived Cell Therapy Revealed With Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging Tractography of the Heart In Vivo

Abstract

Diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging tractography was able to directly resolve the ability of injected cells to generate new myofiber tracts and provided a fundamental readout of their regenerative capacity. A highly novel and translatable approach to assess the efficacy of cell therapy in the heart is thus presented.