Driehuys Bastiaan, Nouls John, Badea Alexandra, Bucholz Elizabeth, Ghaghada Ketan, Petiet Alexandra, Hedlund Laurence W
Department of Radiology, Center for In Vivo Microscopy, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC 27710, USA.
ILAR J. 2008;49(1):35-53. doi: 10.1093/ilar.49.1.35.
Small animal magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) has evolved significantly from testing the boundaries of imaging physics to its expanding use today as a tool in noninvasive biomedical investigations. MRM now increasingly provides functional information about living animals, with images of the beating heart, breathing lung, and functioning brain. Unlike clinical MRI, where the focus is on diagnosis, MRM is used to reveal fundamental biology or to noninvasively measure subtle changes in the structure or function of organs during disease progression or in response to experimental therapies. High-resolution anatomical imaging reveals increasingly exquisite detail in healthy animals and subtle architectural aberrations that occur in genetically altered models. Resolution of 100 mum in all dimensions is now routinely attained in living animals, and (10 mum)(3) is feasible in fixed specimens. Such images almost rival conventional histology while allowing the object to be viewed interactively in any plane. In this review we describe the state of the art in MRM for scientists who may be unfamiliar with this modality but who want to apply its capabilities to their research. We include a brief review of MR concepts and methods of animal handling and support, before covering a range of MRM applications-including the heart, lung, and brain-and the emerging field of MR histology. The ability of MRM to provide a detailed functional and anatomical picture in rats and mice, and to track this picture over time, makes it a promising platform with broad applications in biomedical research.
小动物磁共振显微镜成像（MRM）已经从对成像物理边界的探索显著发展到如今作为一种工具在无创生物医学研究中广泛应用。MRM现在越来越多地提供有关活体动物的功能信息，包括跳动心脏、呼吸肺和功能正常的大脑的图像。与专注于诊断的临床MRI不同，MRM用于揭示基础生物学，或在疾病进展过程中或对实验性治疗的反应中，无创地测量器官结构或功能的细微变化。高分辨率解剖成像能够揭示健康动物越来越精细的细节以及基因改变模型中出现的细微结构异常。现在在活体动物中常规可实现各维度100微米的分辨率，在固定标本中实现（10微米）³的分辨率也是可行的。这样的图像几乎可与传统组织学媲美，同时还能在任何平面以交互式方式观察目标。在这篇综述中，我们为那些可能不熟悉这种成像方式但希望将其应用于研究的科学家描述MRM的最新技术水平。在涵盖一系列MRM应用（包括心脏、肺和大脑）以及新兴的MR组织学领域之前，我们简要回顾了MR概念以及动物处理和支持方法。MRM能够在大鼠和小鼠中提供详细的功能和解剖图像，并随时间跟踪这些图像，这使其成为一个在生物医学研究中有广泛应用前景的平台。
