Researchers in San Antonio, Texas are developing a way to leverage MR imaging to guide stem cell therapies for treating neurological disorders including Parkinson's disease, stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Stem cell therapy is showing promise for treating many different diseases and injuries. But in order to evaluate its potential, a safe and reproducible delivery system is needed, according to a paper that the researchers published in the journal, STEM CELLS Translational Medicine.

"We chose MRI because it gives us the resolution we need to differentiate or better delineate the target brain structures we are interested in," Dr. Marcel Daadi, director of the regenerative medicine and aging unit at Texas Biomedical Research Institute, told HCB News.
The technique is designed to deliver stem cells to the basal ganglia, which is the part of the brain that controls motor skills and is compromised by Parkinson's. The researchers already developed stem cells that can become the cells patients with Parkinson's lose over time, called dopaminergic cells.

The team has already tested the technique on baboons at the institute's Southwest National Primate Research Center and found that it can effectively deliver treatment.

They also found that the technique dispersed the cells in small bursts instead of releasing them at a steady rate. That's important because it shows how injected cells disperse in the brain and encourages new ideas for preparing the cells to function at their best.

Standard stereotaxic delivery could have been used instead, but MR enables real-time visualization of the cells being injected into the target area.

The best cells can be created, but if they aren't transplanted into the patient in a consistent and predictable way then the therapy is ineffective, according to Daadi.

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