Detection of Primary Lung Tumors in Rodents by Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Abstract

This report describes recent efforts to develop and apply small animal magnetic resonance imaging methods to the study of lung tumors in mice. Magnetic resonance (MR) images obtained with respiratory gating, with data collection synchronized with the respiration of the animal, allow visualization of submillimeter tumors in animals treated with a lung carcinogen. Comparison of the MR images with gross pathology of these lungs demonstrates the utility of the imaging methods for measuring tumor burden. As a noninvasive imaging modality that uses nonionizing radiation, MR is well suited to longitudinal studies aimed at understanding the factors that control the onset and development of lung tumors and their response to therapy in a wide variety of animal models.

Three‐dimensional magnetic resonance microscopy of pulmonary solitary tumors in transgenic mice

“…Indeed, the MR signal in the chest wall in mice was distorted around the rib cage on images acquired with a TE of 2.1 ms in our preliminary study at 4.7T (data not shown). However, this image distortion could be overcome on both 2D and 3D GRE images when TE was shorter than 2 ms, as demon- Garbow et al (6) reported the visualization of chemically induced lung tumors in a transgenic mouse using an SE sequence. The authors concluded that MRI could detect submillimeter tumors; however, they performed MRI without cardiac gating, and cardiac motion must have interfered with detection.…”

“…In contrast, MRI is free of ionizing radiation, and is able to provide detailed information simultaneously on the anatomy and function of both soft and hard tissues (4,5) in vivo in laboratory animals. However, reports on the use of MRI to assess the progression and regression of solitary pulmonary tumors in live mice are sparse (6,7).…”

Intravital microscopy of the lung: minimizing invasiveness

“…Originally aimed at other kinds of imaging such as MRI [53,54], acquisition synchronization with a certain phase of the breathing cycle has been performed in some instances, such as IVM of the mouse skin [55]. Adapted to lung IVM, this technique is generally used in association with other stabilization techniques [23,25,28,45,56].…”

Efficacy of PHA-848125, a Cyclin-Dependent Kinase Inhibitor, on the K-RasG12DLA2 Lung Adenocarcinoma Transgenic Mouse Model: Evaluation by Multimodality Imaging

“…Recently, two-and three-dimensional MRI, using both spin echo and gradient echo sequences, were used to detect and follow mouse pulmonary tumors in various lung cancer models. Investigators used animals injected intrathoracically with human lung carcinoma cells (15), mice treated with the carcinogen benzopyrene (16) or urethane (17), and transgenic models (18,19).…”