Cardiac Cell Therapy Optimization via Metabolic Magnetic Resonance Imaging Feedback
Cell treatment will be used in treatment of advanced heart failure. Heart patches will be produced in the lab by tissue engineering methods and transplanted onto the malfunctioning hearts of patients. The treatment efficacy and possible improvement in damaged heart tissue will be monitored by metabolic MRI. Metabolic MR data will be used as feedback to improve the production and function of engineered heart tissue to increase the effect of the treatment.
Chronic heart failure is a deadly disease that affects 2% of the adult population, and thereby represents a substantial need and market for effective therapies Heart failure imposes significant direct costs across different countries. In the UK, Germany, France, and the US, the annual costs per one million population were reported as €26 million, €37 million, €39 million, and €70 million, respectively.
Replacement of malfunctioning heart tissue will be investigated using transplanted heart cell patches. Metabolic MRI data of the patients will be obtained before and after the surgery so that the functional effect of the transplanted cell patches will be visualized for the first time. Additionally, MRI data will be used as feedback to improve the production of heart tissue patches. Advanced heart failure results in debilitating symptoms and is a major healthcare burden. Cardiac cell culture is becoming more and more standardized, automated, and cost-effective. Therefore, the improvement to quality of life after successful cell therapy makes cell therapy compatible with value-based health care.
The incorporation of the functional imaging feedback mechanism both to the cardiac and the other regenerative therapies will provide important scientific insights into transplanted tissue function, inspiring regenerative therapy methodologies, and eventually improving the quality of life and survival rates of patients with advanced organ failure.
