Schreiber Laura M, Lohr David, Baltes Steffen, Vogel Ulrich, Elabyad Ibrahim A, Bille Maya, Reiter Theresa, Kosmala Aleksander, Gassenmaier Tobias, Stefanescu Maria R, Kollmann Alena, Aures Julia, Schnitter Florian, Pali Mihaela, Ueda Yuichiro, Williams Tatiana, Christa Martin, Hofmann Ulrich, Bauer Wolfgang, Gerull Brenda, Zernecke Alma, Ergün Süleyman, Terekhov Maxim
Department of Cardiovascular Imaging and Chair of Molecular and Cellular Imaging, Comprehensive Heart Failure Center Wuerzburg (CHFC), University Hospital Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany.
Institute for Hygiene and Microbiology, University of Wuerzburg, Wuerzburg, Germany.
Front Cardiovasc Med. 2023 May 15;10:1068390. doi: 10.3389/fcvm.2023.1068390. eCollection 2023.
A key step in translational cardiovascular research is the use of large animal models to better understand normal and abnormal physiology, to test drugs or interventions, or to perform studies which would be considered unethical in human subjects. Ultrahigh field magnetic resonance imaging (UHF-MRI) at 7 T field strength is becoming increasingly available for imaging of the heart and, when compared to clinically established field strengths, promises better image quality and image information content, more precise functional analysis, potentially new image contrasts, and as all imaging techniques, a reduction of the number of animals per study because of the possibility to scan every animal repeatedly. We present here a solution to the dual use problem of whole-body UHF-MRI systems, which are typically installed in clinical environments, to both UHF-MRI in large animals and humans. Moreover, we provide evidence that in such a research infrastructure UHF-MRI, and ideally combined with a standard small-bore UHF-MRI system, can contribute to a variety of spatial scales in translational cardiovascular research: from cardiac organoids, Zebra fish and rodent hearts to large animal models such as pigs and humans. We present pilot data from serial CINE, late gadolinium enhancement, and susceptibility weighted UHF-MRI in a myocardial infarction model over eight weeks. In 14 pigs which were delivered from a breeding facility in a national SARS-CoV-2 hotspot, we found no infection in the incoming pigs. Human scanning using CINE and phase contrast flow measurements provided good image quality of the left and right ventricle. Agreement of functional analysis between CINE and phase contrast MRI was excellent. MRI in arrested hearts or excised vascular tissue for MRI-based histologic imaging, structural imaging of myofiber and vascular smooth muscle cell architecture using high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging, and UHF-MRI for monitoring free radicals as a surrogate for MRI of reactive oxygen species in studies of oxidative stress are demonstrated. We conclude that UHF-MRI has the potential to become an important precision imaging modality in translational cardiovascular research.
转化心血管研究中的一个关键步骤是使用大型动物模型，以更好地理解正常和异常生理学、测试药物或干预措施，或开展在人体受试者中被认为不道德的研究。7T场强的超高场磁共振成像（UHF-MRI）越来越多地用于心脏成像，与临床常用的场强相比，它有望提供更好的图像质量和图像信息含量、更精确的功能分析、潜在的新图像对比度，并且与所有成像技术一样，由于有可能对每只动物进行重复扫描，因此可以减少每项研究中的动物数量。我们在此提出一种解决全身UHF-MRI系统双重用途问题的方案，这种系统通常安装在临床环境中，可用于大型动物和人类的UHF-MRI。此外，我们提供的证据表明，在这样的研究基础设施中，UHF-MRI，理想情况下与标准小口径UHF-MRI系统相结合，可在转化心血管研究的各种空间尺度上发挥作用：从心脏类器官、斑马鱼和啮齿动物心脏到猪和人类等大型动物模型。我们展示了在心肌梗死模型中连续八周进行的电影磁共振成像（CINE）、延迟钆增强成像和 susceptibility weighted UHF-MRI的初步数据。在从全国新冠病毒热点地区的一个繁殖场送来的14头猪中，我们发现新来的猪没有感染。使用CINE和相位对比血流测量进行的人体扫描提供了左心室和右心室的良好图像质量。CINE和相位对比MRI之间的功能分析一致性非常好。还展示了在停跳心脏或切除的血管组织中进行基于MRI的组织学成像、使用高分辨率扩散张量成像对肌纤维和血管平滑肌细胞结构进行结构成像，以及在氧化应激研究中使用UHF-MRI监测自由基作为活性氧物种MRI替代物的情况。我们得出结论，UHF-MRI有潜力成为转化心血管研究中的一种重要的精准成像方式。
