In a first-of-its-kind study, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers wrapped stem cells in layers of inert materials and X-ray-visible barium to track where stem cells move within the body and to protect them from immune response. They were to present their results at a Late-Breaking Emerging Technologies and Innovations session Sunday at the American College of Cardiology annual meeting in New Orleans. The so-called XCaps helped researchers track the delivery, survival and function of donor stem cells used to treat cardiovascular disease in rabbits.

“In acute ischemia, you don?t have the luxury of taking stem cells from the body and waiting two to three weeks to culture and expand them in the laboratory,” said Dara L. Kraitchman, associate professor of radiology at Hopkins. “Ideally, we?d like to be able to take donor cells off the shelf, make them X-ray visible, protect them from the immune system and deliver them precisely where we want them to be.”