FUJIFILM VisualSonics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Institute for Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Christian-Albrecht University of Kiel, Kiel, Germany.
Med Phys. 2023 Sep;50(9):5757-5771. doi: 10.1002/mp.16651. Epub 2023 Aug 3.
Characterizations based on anatomically realistic phantoms are highly effective to perform accurate technical validation of imaging systems. Specifically for photoacoustic imaging (PAI), although a variety of phantom models with simplified geometries are reported, an unmet need still exists to establish morphologically realistic heterogeneous pre-clinical phantoms. So the development of a mouse-mimicking phantom can reduce the use of animals for the validation and standardization studies of pre-clinical PAI systems and thus eventually translate the PAI technology to clinical research.
Here we designed, developed, and fabricated a stable phantom that mimics the detailed morphology of a mouse, to be used as a realistic tool for PAI.
The mouse phantom, has been designed by using a combination of image modeling and 3D-printing techniques. As a tissue-mimicking material, we have used copolymer-in-oil-based material that was recently proposed by the International Photoacoustic Standardization Consortium (IPASC). In particular, the anatomically realistic phantom has been modeled by using the real atlas of a mouse as a reference. The mouse phantom includes a 3D-printed skeleton and the main abdominal organs such as the liver, spleen, and kidneys obtained by using doped copolymer-in-oil material with 3D-printed molds. In addition, the acoustic and optical properties of the tissue-mimicking material and the long-term stability have been broadly characterized.
Furthermore, our studies showed that the phantom is durable and stable for more than 200 days, under normal storage and repeated use. Fabrication protocol is easy to reproduce. As a result, the proposed morphologically realistic mouse phantom offers durability, material compatibility, and an unprecedented realistic resemblance to the actual rodents' anatomy in PAI.
This durable morphologically realistic mouse phantom would minimize the animal experiments in compliance with the 3R principle of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement. To our knowledge, this is the first time an anatomically realistic heterogeneous mouse phantom has been proposed for PAI in pre-clinical animal imaging and tested its durability over 200 days.
基于解剖逼真的体模进行的特征描述对于准确验证成像系统的技术性能非常有效。特别是对于光声成像（PAI），尽管已经报道了各种具有简化几何形状的体模模型，但仍需要建立形态逼真的异质临床前 PAI 体模。因此，开发一种模拟鼠的体模可以减少动物在临床前 PAI 系统验证和标准化研究中的使用，从而最终将 PAI 技术转化为临床研究。
本研究设计、开发和制作了一种稳定的模拟鼠体模，作为 PAI 的实用工具。
鼠体模采用图像建模和 3D 打印技术相结合的方式设计。作为组织模拟材料，我们使用了最近由国际光声标准化联盟（IPASC）提出的油包共聚体制备材料。特别是，我们使用真实鼠图谱作为参考，对解剖逼真的体模进行建模。鼠体模包括一个 3D 打印的骨骼和主要的腹部器官，如肝脏、脾脏和肾脏，这些器官是通过使用掺杂共聚体制备材料和 3D 打印模具获得的。此外，我们广泛地对组织模拟材料的声学和光学特性及其长期稳定性进行了研究。
此外，我们的研究表明，该体模在正常储存和重复使用的情况下，稳定耐用，可超过 200 天。该体模的制造方案易于复制。因此，所提出的形态逼真的鼠体模在 PAI 中具有耐用性、材料兼容性和对实际啮齿动物解剖结构的前所未有的逼真性。
这种耐用的形态逼真的鼠体模将最大限度地减少动物实验，符合替代、减少和优化的 3R 原则。据我们所知，这是首次提出用于临床前动物成像的解剖逼真的异质鼠体模，并对其超过 200 天的耐用性进行了测试。
