Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

The dynamic cardiac cellular landscape: visualization by molecular imaging

  • Clinical Outlook
  • Published:

From Nature Reviews Cardiology

View current issue Sign up to alerts

Paradigm-shifting studies have revealed that the heart contains heterogeneous and dynamic immune and stromal cell populations that are crucial determinants of health and disease. Advances in molecular imaging now make it possible to non-invasively visualize the cardiac cellular landscape in humans, providing a means to guide precision therapies.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Koenig, A. L. et al. Single-cell transcriptomics reveals cell-type-specific diversification in human heart failure. Nat. Cardiovasc. Res. 1, 263–280 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Zaman, R., Hamidzada, H. & Epelman, S. Exploring cardiac macrophage heterogeneity in the healthy and diseased myocardium. Curr. Opin. Immunol. 68, 54–63 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Bajpai, G. et al. The human heart contains distinct macrophage subsets with divergent origins and functions. Nat. Med. 24, 1234–1245 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Thackeray, J. T. & Bengel, F. M. Molecular imaging of myocardial inflammation with positron emission tomography post-ischemia: a determinant of subsequent remodeling or recovery. JACC Cardiovasc. Imaging 11, 1340–1355 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Hess, A. et al. Molecular imaging-guided repair after acute myocardial infarction by targeting the chemokine receptor CXCR4. Eur. Heart J. 41, 3564–3575 (2020).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Heo, G. S. et al. Molecular imaging visualizes recruitment of inflammatory monocytes and macrophages to the injured heart. Circ. Res. 124, 881–890 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Heo, G. S. et al. Targeted PET imaging of chemokine receptor 2-positive monocytes and macrophages in the injured heart. J. Nucl. Med. 62, 111–114 (2021).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Aghajanian, H. et al. Targeting cardiac fibrosis with engineered T cells. Nature 573, 430–433 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Diekmann, J. et al. Cardiac fibroblast activation in patients early after acute myocardial infarction: integration with magnetic resonance tissue characterization and subsequent functional outcome. J. Nucl. Med. https://doi.org/10.2967/jnumed.121.263555 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Heckmann, M. B. et al. Relationship between cardiac fibroblast activation protein activity by positron emission tomography and cardiovascular disease. Circ. Cardiovasc. Imaging 13, e010628 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

K.J.L. is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (HL161185, HL150891 and HL151078), the Children’s Discovery Institute (PM-LI-2019-829), the Burroughs Welcome Fund (1014782), the Leducq Foundation (20CVD02) and by generous gifts through Washington University and Barnes Jewish Hospital. Y.L. is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (HL145212, HL150891, HL153436, HL151685 and EB025815).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Kory J. Lavine

  2. Department of Radiology, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA

    Yongjian Liu

Authors
  1. Kory J. Lavine
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Yongjian Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kory J. Lavine.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

K.J.L. serves as a consultant for Implicit Biosciences and Medtronic and is the recipient of sponsored research agreements with Amgen and Novartis. K.J.L. and Y.L. have a pending patent entitled “Methods for detecting CCR2 receptors” (application number: US17/001,857).

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Lavine, K.J., Liu, Y. The dynamic cardiac cellular landscape: visualization by molecular imaging. Nat Rev Cardiol 19, 345–347 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-022-00702-z

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-022-00702-z

  • Springer Nature Limited

This article is cited by

Search

Navigation