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. 2012 Mar 22;13(3):3847–3886. doi: 10.3390/ijms13033847

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© 2012 by the authors; licensee Molecular Diversity Preservation International, Basel, Switzerland.

This article is an open-access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).

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Scheme showing an overview of stem cell tracking: a work flow chart for labelling cells and introducing labelled cells into the human body include: (1) SPIO NPs are taken into the cell by an endocytosis process. This requires the coordinated action of some proteins like ENTH domain containing proteins, BAR superfamily proteins, ARF family small G proteins, proteins that nucleate actin polymerization, and dynamin superfamily proteins. The best-understood mechanism is clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). (2) Cells are cultured in vitro and ex vivo, and then, (3) injected intravenously into the human body. (4) SPIO-labelled SCs are then tracked in the body with MRI. SPIO NPs generate a signal that correlates with the cell location and permits non-invasive longitudinal tracking of cell therapies. In this example, MRI is used to track SPIO-labelled cells. In the case of Quantum dots, the same procedure is performed but using fluorescent tracking methods.