Upgrading ultrasound imaging capabilities for preclinical research

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In order to understand diseases, we use - among many other tools - mouse models of human diseases. These animals are designed to mimic human diseases so the origin and processes leading to these diseases can be studied. Once we understand better how the diseases come about, we can test treatments to improve disease, and both understanding disease and testing approaches to treat disease are aspects of our research projects.In order to follow how diseases progress and/or how treatments improve these diseases, we need imaging tools that allow us to see what is going on inside the body of a living animal. One great technique for this is ultrasound. It is a non-invasive, pain-free technique. An imaging head (called 'transducer') is placed on the skin and the ultrasound waves can penetrate into the body, These sound waves are then reflected off any tissues they meet and return as 'echoes' that are picked up by the same transducer before being converted to a moving image. Ultrasound imaging is also widely used in clinical settings (e.g. to monitor the growth of embryos inside the womb during pregnancy). However, due to the small size of the animals used, the ultrasound used in our research needs much better spatial resolution than in clinically used machines. Moreover, for research focussing on the heart, the beating rate of animal models is roughly ten times faster than that of humans, so also the temporal resolution needs to be much better. We are requesting equipment with such specifications that will allow us to carry out ultrasound imaging in animal models of disease. The majority of research projects using the equipment will focus on cardiovascular diseases, however, we will expand the application of ultrasound imaging to other areas, such as cancer and liver disease. The new ultrasound imaging equipment, called VevoF2, will replace old, now obsolete equipment. It will have better specifications, hence allowing us to reduce the burden on animals in research by using less animals and at points where the disease has less progressed. Moreover, the new ultrasound equipment comes with software packages that use novel tools and techniques to make better use of the images recorded. It will allow us to get more information out of these images, e.g. about blood flow in the heart or blood vessels by a technique called tissue Doppler.Due to the modular nature of the new equipment, hard- and software extensions can be bought in the future to adapt the equipment to new applications or research questions, e.g. to implement the use of contrast agents to better visualise tumours.