Home > Browse Issues > Vol.38 No.2
Tracking the EGFP-labeled Mesenchymal Stem Cells in Live Animal by In Vivo Imaging
Wang Wei1#, Chen Chao1#, Liu Yanming1, Zhang Nan1, Lü Liyan2, Song Xianrang2, Han Fabin1*
1Liaocheng University/Liaocheng People’s Hospital, Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine, Liaocheng 252000, China;
2Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Radio-Oncology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Ji’nan 250117, China
2Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Radio-Oncology, Shandong Cancer Hospital and Institute, Ji’nan 250117, China
Abstract: To observe the survival and migration of transplanted stem cell， we developed a non-invasive labeling technique to track the transplanted stem cells in vivo. In this study， we transfected the pCMV-EGFP plasmid into cells by electroporation to generate EGFP-labeled-human dental pulp stem cells (DPSCs)， skin fibroblast cells (SFCs) and umbilical cord-mesenchymal stem cells (UC-MSCs) in vitro， respectively. Then the EGFP-labeled UC-MSCs were injected to the nude mice subcutaneously and were tracked over a period of 5 weeks using IVIS live animal imaging system. It was found that the efficiencies of EGFP transfection are 80%， 85% and 80% in EGFP-labeled DPSCs， EGFP-labeled SFCs and EGFP-labeled UC-MSCs， respectively. Live-animal in vivo imaging analysis showed that the EGFP-labeled cells can retain the strong fluorescence for 7 days and decreased eventually overtime， but the immunohistochemistry analysis indicated that transplanted cells could survive for more than 6 months in vivo. In conclusion， EGFP-labeled technique could be used as a valuable approach to track the survival and migration of transplanted stem cells in vivo for studying the molecular mechanisms of stem cell transplantation.
CN
EN