SMALL ANIMAL PET SCANNER

这项共享仪器补助金提案要求提供资金，用于购买高分辨率、高灵敏度的正电子发射断层扫描（PET）扫描仪，专门用于对小动物体内正电子发射放射性示踪剂的分布进行成像。拟议中的动物PET扫描仪将扩大和加强匹兹堡大学医学中心（UPMC）的基础和应用功能成像研究。所提出的扫描仪MicroPET（Concorde Microsystems，Inc.），能够进行定量动态PET成像，并可容纳从小鼠到恒河猴头部大小不等的动物。MicroPET将设在UPMC PET设施内，由一个内部咨询委员会管理和指导，该委员会由本提案中提到的共同研究者和主要用户组成。购买专用动物PET扫描仪将有利于UPMC正在进行和正在开发的功能成像研究项目。这些好处将在三个主要领域实现。首先，MicroPET系统的空间分辨率提高（FWHM约为2.0 mm，而当前CTI/Siemens HR+扫描仪的FWHM约为4.5 mm）更适合小动物的PET成像，因为MicroPET系统的小结构的部分体积平均值将显著降低。其次，MicroPET将有助于快速有效地筛选和评估UPMC PET设施正在开发的潜在放射性示踪剂。MicroPET的使用将使得在每个动物实验中获得候选放射性示踪剂的完整动力学曲线成为可能，并且将减少在昂贵或复杂的实验方案的不同阶段杀死动物的需要。此外，动物可在系列激发或干预研究中用作其自身对照。第三，MicroPET扫描仪将扩大功能成像在基础科学研究中的作用，因为它将允许进行独特的研究，这是不可能的或过于侵入性的，不能在人类受试者中进行。这项研究将包括转基因小鼠的成像，荷瘤动物的治疗效果研究，大鼠的同步PET和微透析实验，或疾病动物模型的研究（例如，帕金森氏病）。十三个不同的研究项目，将利用拟议的MicroPET高分辨率扫描仪，并从其收购中受益。

This Shared Instrumentation Grant proposal requests funds to purchase a high resolution, high sensitivity positron emission tomography (PET) scanner dedicated to imaging the distribution of positron-emitting radiotracers in small animals. The proposed animal PET scanner will expand and enhance basic and applied functional imaging research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). The proposed scanner, MicroPET (Concorde Microsystems, Inc.), is capable of quantitative dynamic PET imaging and can accommodate animals ranging in size from mice to the heads of rhesus monkeys. The MicroPET will be sited at the UPMC PET Facility and managed and directed by an Internal Advisory Committee made up of the co-investigators and major users cited in this proposal. The purchase of a dedicated animal PET scanner will benefit ongoing and developing functional imaging research programs at UPMC. There are three major areas in which these benefits will be realized. First, the improved spatial resolution of the MicroPET system (approximately 2.0 mm FWHM compared to approximately 4.5 mm for the current CTI/Siemens HR+ scanner) is more suitable for PET imaging of small animals, as partial volume averaging of small structures would be considerably less with the MicroPET system. Second, the MicroPET would facilitate a rapid and effective screening and evaluation of prospective radiotracers under development at the UPMC PET Facility. Use of MicroPET would make possible the acquisition of a complete kinetic profile of candidate radiotracers in each animal experiment and would obviate the need to kill animals at different stages of costly or complicated experimental protocols. In addition, the animals could be used as their own controls in serial challenge or interventional studies. Third, the MicroPET scanner will expand the role of functional imaging in basic science research, as it will allow unique research to be conduced which is impossible or too invasive to be conducted in human subjects. This research would include imaging of transgenic mice, studies of treatment efficacy in tumor-bearing animals, simultaneous PET and microdialysis experiments in rats, or studies of animal models of disease (e.g., Parkinson's disease). Thirteen different research projects that would utilize the proposed MicroPET high resolution scanner and benefit from its acquisition are described.