Peripheral artery disease: the new frontiers of imaging techniques to evaluate the evolution of regenerative medicine

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Stem cells (ESC, iPSC, MSC) are known to have intrinsic regenerative properties. In the last decades numerous findings have favored the development of innovative therapeutic protocols based on the use of stem cells (Regenerative Medicine/Cell Therapy) for the treatment of numerous diseases including PAD, with promising results in preclinical studies.

So far, several clinical studies have shown a general improvement of the patient’s clinical outcome, however they possess many critical issues caused by the non-randomized design of the limited number of patients examined, the type cells to be used, their dosage, the short duration of treatment and also their delivery strategy.

Areas covered: In this context, the use of the most advanced molecular imaging techniques will allow the visualization of very important physio-pathological processes otherwise invisible with conventional techniques, such as angiogenesis, also providing important structural and functional data.

Expert opinion: The new frontier of cell therapy applied to PAD, potentially able to stop or even the process that causes the disease, with particular emphasis on the clinical aspects that different types of cells involve and on the use of more innovative molecular imaging techniques now available.

KEYWORDS:

• Angiogenesis
• delivery
• imaging
• peripheral artery disease (PAD)
• regenerative medicine
• stem cells

Article highlights box

• Angiogenesis is the physiological process through which new blood vessels develop from pre-existing vessels.

• Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is an abnormal narrowing of arteries other than those that supply the heart or brain.

• Regenerative medicine is a branch of translational research in tissue engineering and molecular biology which deals with the ‘process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function’.

• Stem cells are cells with the potential to develop into many different types of cells in the body, and can also divide in self-renewal to produce more of the same type of stem cells.

Declaration of interest

The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer Disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was funded by IRCCS SDN Napoli.