E.B. Singleton Department of Radiology, Texas Children's Hospital & Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA.
Methods Mol Biol. 2022;2419:809-823. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1924-7_49.
Atheromatous lesions are characterized by intrusion into the vascular lumen, resulting in morphological changes to the blood compartment and into the vessel wall, resulting in characteristic molecular and cellular signatures in the solid tissue of the intima, tunica media, adventitia and surrounding tissue. Nanoprobes can be easily formulated to provide long blood-pool residence and molecular targeting, facilitating the imaging of atheromatous changes. Detection of nanoprobes can be accomplished by a variety of methods. We focus in this chapter on the use of cross-sectional imaging techniques, computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), that facilitate in vivo, noninvasive imaging of the vascular morphology and molecular/cellular signatures of the atheroma. The methods described are suitable for use in animal models, although versions of the probes are being readied for clinical trials, potentially facilitating clinical use in the future.
动脉粥样硬化病变的特征是侵入血管腔，导致血液腔和血管壁的形态学改变，从而在内膜、中膜、外膜和周围组织的固体组织中产生特征性的分子和细胞特征。纳米探针很容易被制成具有长血液池滞留和分子靶向的特性，从而促进动脉粥样硬化变化的成像。纳米探针的检测可以通过多种方法来完成。在本章中，我们重点介绍使用横截面成像技术，即计算机断层扫描（CT）和磁共振成像（MRI），来促进血管形态和动脉粥样硬化的分子/细胞特征的体内无创成像。所描述的方法适用于动物模型，尽管正在为临床试验准备探针的版本，这可能有助于将来在临床上的使用。
