Welfare Assessment on Healthy and Tumor-Bearing Mice after Repeated Ultrasound Imaging

Abstract

Introduction: Ultrasound (US) imaging enables tissue visualization in high spatial resolution with short examination times. Thus, it is often applied in preclinical research. Diagnostic US, including contrast-enhanced ultrasound (CEUS), are considered to be well tolerated by laboratory animals although no systematic study has been performed to confirm this claim. Therefore, the aim of this study was to screen for possible effects of US and CEUS examinations on welfare of healthy mice. Additionally, the potential influence of CEUS and molecular CEUS on well-being and therapy response to regorafenib was investigated in breast cancer-bearing mice. Material and Methods: 40 healthy Balb/c mice were randomly assigned for examination with US or CEUS (3x/week) for four weeks. Untreated healthy mice and mice receiving only isoflurane anesthesia served as controls (n= 10/group). Ninety-four 4T1 tumor-bearing Balb/c mice were allocated randomly to the following groups: no imaging, isoflurane anesthesia, CEUS and molecular CEUS. They either received 10 mg/kg regorafenib or vehicle solution daily by oral gavage. Animals were examined three times within two weeks. CEUS measurements were performed using phospholipid-microbubbles and phospholipid-microbubbles targeting the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-2 were applied for molecular CEUS. Welfare evaluation was performed by daily observational score sheets, measuring the heart rate, Rotarod performance and fecal corticosterone metabolites twice per week. On the last day, pathological changes of serum corticosterone concentrations, hemograms, and organ weights were obtained. Moreover, a potential influence of isoflurane anesthesia, CEUS and molecular CEUS on regorafenib response in tumor-bearing mice was examined. Analysis of variance and Dunnett post hoc test were performed as statistical analyses. Results: Severity parameters were not altered after repeated US and CEUS examinations of healthy mice, but spleen sizes were significantly lower after isoflurane anesthesia. In tumor-bearing mice, no effect on animal-welfare after repeated CEUS and molecular CEUS could be observed. However, leukocyte counts and spleen weights of tumor-bearing mice were significantly lower in animals examined with CEUS and molecular CEUS compared to the control groups. This effect was not visible in regorafenib-treated animals. Conclusions: Repeated US and (molecular) CEUS have no detectable impact on animal welfare in healthy and tumor-bearing mice. However, CEUS and molecular CEUS in combination with isoflurane anesthesia might attenuate immunological processes in tumor-bearing animals and may consequently affect responses to anti-tumor therapy.

Repeated Contrast-Enhanced Micro-CT Examinations Decrease Animal Welfare and Influence Tumor Physiology

“…2,3 With regard to the 3Rs, imaging contributes significantly to the reduction of animal numbers required for a study by enabling longitudinal scans of the same animal. 4 Whereas it was shown that, for example, magnetic resonance imaging and ultrasound imaging are well tolerated by animals and highly suited for preclinical research, 5,6 other modalities have not yet profoundly been explored concerning risks and possible unwanted side effects on animal well-being and study results.…”