Myocardial Homing of Nonmobilized Peripheral-blood CD34+ Cells After Intracoronary Injection

Granulocyte--colony-stimulating factor administered for autologous hematopoietic stem cell isolation from blood may favor restenosis in patients implanted after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). We therefore tested the isolation of peripheral-blood CD34+ cells without mobilization in six patients with AMI. After large-volume cytapheresis and positive CD34+ cell selection, 3.6 to 27.6 million CD34+ cells were obtained. We performed intra-coronary implantation of these cells and recorded no restenosis or arrhythmia. We used positron emission tomography (PET) to assess myocardial-labeled CD34+ cell homing, which accounted for 5.5% of injected cells 1 hour after implantation. In conclusion, large amounts of CD34+ cells, in the range reported in previous studies, can be obtained from nonmobilized peripheral blood. PET with [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose cell labeling is an efficient imaging method for homing assessment.