PET, SPECT, CT, and MRI in Mouse Cardiac Phenotyping: An Overview

Abstract

This overview first summarizes the last decade of continuous developments and improvements in pre-clinical imaging methods that are now essential tools for in vivo evaluation of cardiac morphology and function in living mice, involving nuclear emission of labeled molecules (micro-PET and micro-SPECT) and electromagnetic wave interactions with biological tissues (micro-CT and micro-MRI). In the following, and for better understanding, the basic physical principles and specific technical innovations of the aforementioned imaging methods are reviewed. Specificity, sensitivity, and spatial and temporal resolutions, together with the corresponding advantages and weaknesses of each method are then discussed, and cardiac image-acquisition protocols and illustrative examples are given for each modality. Emerging hybrid cardiac imaging is also presented and illustrated. Then, recent biological insights provided by mouse cardiac imaging are presented. Finally, imaging strategies in mouse cardiac phenotyping involving the aforementioned methods, adding metabolic and molecular information to morphological data, are emphasized and discussed. Curr. Protoc. Mouse Biol. 2:129-144 © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Recent Advances in Cardiovascular Diseases Research Using Animal Models and PET Radioisotope Tracers

“…The radiotracers are most often administered intravenously, hence the blood flow in large vessels may make it difficult to determine the exact outline of the area of interest. Physiological factors limit the spatial resolution to about 100 µm [35]. Gating is used to reduce motion blur for better results.…”