A study on 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging assessment of the anti-aging efficacy of BMMSCs in the macaque brain.

<h4>Objective</h4>Aging is a pressing global challenge requiring urgent solutions, and the anti-aging potential of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) has drawn global attention. This study treated aged macaques with bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells (BMMSCs) and aimed to establish a non-invasive, reliable, specific, and reproducible imaging method for evaluating BMMSCs' therapeutic effects by combining 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging with texture analysis and Statistical Parametric Mapping 8.0 (SPM8.0).<h4>Methods</h4>Sixteen healthy female macaques were split into three age groups: juvenile, young, and elderly. Baseline 18F-FDG PET/CT imaging was conducted, and only the elderly group received BMMSC transplantation. Brain PET/CT scans were repeated 3 and 6 months post-treatment. PET data were processed using PET Vcar (for metabolic analysis), LIFEx (for texture feature extraction), and SPM8.0 (for pixel-wise statistical mapping).<h4>Results</h4>The elderly group had a higher metabolic volume (MTV) than the juvenile group, which declined after BMMSC treatment. However, no significant differences in SUVmax, SUVmean, or TLG were found in the elderly group post-treatment. Texture analysis identified SHAPE_Surface and GLZLM_LZLGE as strong classification markers, with ROC curve AUC values of 0.833 and 0.75, respectively. SPM 8.0 analysis showed BMMSCs improved glucose metabolism in the entorhinal and auditory cortices of aged macaques.<h4>Conclusions</h4>BMMSC treatment improved glucose metabolism in specific functional brain regions (auditory processing, motor ability, cognitive memory, vision, taste, and reproductive systems) of aged macaques. 18F-FDG PET/CT plus texture analysis and SPM8.0 is a credible, accurate quantitative methods for assessing BMMSC efficacy.