PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Shuo Hu
AU  - Mengting Cai
AU  - Lei Ren
AU  - Xiaoqin Yin
AU  - Tingting He
TI  - <strong>PET Monitoring Angiogeniesis of Infarcted Myocardium after Treatment with Vascular Endothelial Growth Factorand Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells</strong>
DP  - 2015 May 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1480--1480
VI  - 56
IP  - supplement 3
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/56/supplement_3/1480.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/56/supplement_3/1480.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2015 May 01; 56
AB  - 1480 Objectives Angiogenesis plays an important role in the functional efficiency of the infarcted myocardium. The αvβ3 integrin is highly expressed during angiogenesis. This study aims to monitor angiogenesis of infarcted myocardium with a PET imaging molecular agent, 18F-alfatide II targeting the αvβ3 integrins after treatment with VEGF gene and/or bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMSCs).Methods Sixteen SD rats underwent left coronary artery ligation were randomly divided into four groups: control group, VEGF group, BMSC group and VEGF + BMSC group, respectively and were treated with saline, Ad-VEGF, BMSCs and Ad-VEGF + BMSCs. The induced myocardial infarction (MI) was confirmed by electrocardiogram (ECG), and 99mTc-MIBI SPECT imaging. Alfatide II PET was performed to monitor angiogenesis at different time points after the therapy. The PET results were validated by tissue biodistribution, autoradiography, and immunofluorescence staining.Results At 1 week after the therapy, elevated RGD peptide tracer uptake at the infarcted myocardium was observed in all four groups. The infarct to normal cardiac muscle ratios of Alfatide II tracer of the three treated groups were significantly higher than that of the control group (3.94 ± 0.20 for VEGF group, 3.77 ± 0.16 for BMSC group and 4.86 ± 0.08 for the combination group vs. 3.01 ± 0.03 for the control group). The combination treatment group demonstrated much higher ratio than those of the two single treatment groups. After 4 weeks, the combination treatment group still had the highest uptake ratio (4.48 ± 0.11 vs. 2.86 ± 0.13 for control, 3.44 ± 0.11 for VEGF and 3.51 ± 0.05 for BMSC). Autoradiography showed similar trend to that of PET results. Immunohistochemical staining results were consistent with the PET results.Conclusions 18F-alfatide II PET could detect angiogenesis after VEGF gene and BMSC therapy of infarcted myocardium. This study may lay the foundation for future non-invasive PET monitoring of therapy response in myocardial infarct patients.