Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Center of Imaging Research, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
Wiley Interdiscip Rev Syst Biol Med. 2010 Jul-Aug;2(4):398-421. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.71.
Translational research plays a vital role in understanding the underlying pathophysiology of human diseases, and hence development of new diagnostic and therapeutic options for their management. After creating an animal disease model, pathophysiologic changes and effects of a therapeutic intervention on them are often evaluated on the animals using immunohistologic or imaging techniques. In contrast to the immunohistologic techniques, the imaging techniques are noninvasive and hence can be used to investigate the whole animal, oftentimes in a single exam which provides opportunities to perform longitudinal studies and dynamic imaging of the same subject, and hence minimizes the experimental variability, requirement for the number of animals, and the time to perform a given experiment. Whole animal imaging can be performed by a number of techniques including x-ray computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, ultrasound imaging, positron emission tomography, single photon emission computed tomography, fluorescence imaging, and bioluminescence imaging, among others. Individual imaging techniques provide different kinds of information regarding the structure, metabolism, and physiology of the animal. Each technique has its own strengths and weaknesses, and none serves every purpose of image acquisition from all regions of an animal. In this review, a broad overview of basic principles, available contrast mechanisms, applications, challenges, and future prospects of many imaging techniques employed for whole animal imaging is provided. Our main goal is to briefly describe the current state of art to researchers and advanced students with a strong background in the field of animal research.
转化研究在理解人类疾病的潜在病理生理学方面起着至关重要的作用，因此为其管理开发新的诊断和治疗方法。在创建动物疾病模型后，通常使用免疫组织化学或成像技术在动物身上评估治疗干预对它们的病理生理变化和影响。与免疫组织化学技术相比，成像技术是非侵入性的，因此可以用于研究整个动物，通常可以在一次检查中进行，这为进行纵向研究和同一对象的动态成像提供了机会，从而最大限度地减少了实验变异性、对动物数量的要求以及进行给定实验的时间。全动物成像可以通过多种技术实现，包括 X 射线计算机断层扫描、磁共振成像、超声成像、正电子发射断层扫描、单光子发射计算机断层扫描、荧光成像和生物发光成像等。每种成像技术都提供了有关动物结构、代谢和生理学的不同类型的信息。每种技术都有其自身的优势和局限性，没有一种技术可以满足从动物所有区域获取图像的所有目的。在这篇综述中，提供了用于全动物成像的多种成像技术的基本原理、可用对比机制、应用、挑战和未来前景的广泛概述。我们的主要目标是向具有动物研究领域强大背景的研究人员和高级学生简要描述当前的艺术状态。
