Micro Computerized Tomography Imaging System

描述(申请人提供)：医学成像仪器的最新工程进展已经生产出用于小型实验动物研究的微型版本的X射线、放射性核素和磁共振扫描仪。这一点，再加上日益复杂的转基因小鼠模型，正在推动在整个动物水平上研究体内疾病和发育过程的一场革命。这项跨学科的提案要求为小动物X射线计算机断层扫描扫描仪(“microCT”)提供资金。用户涉及放射学/核医学、医学、病理学、生化/分子生物学、整形外科、胸外科、肿瘤学和牙科等领域。这些项目涉及骨骼发育和骨质疏松症，以及癌症的化疗和抗血管新生治疗。拟议的microCT扫描仪的应用将包括用于与活体、小动物PET和光学成像仪的功能图像相关联的解剖成像；对动物模型中转移肿瘤发展的连续监测；对正常和病理性骨发育以及饮食和基因改变对转基因小鼠骨生长的影响的连续体内定量监测；以及超高分辨率的体外定量成像，对与骨发育以及对饮食和基因修饰的反应有关的骨标本进行定量成像。在过去的几年里，在NIH/NCIP20规划拨款的支持下，南加州大学建立了一个分子成像中心。申请的MicroCT扫描仪将安装在中心的分子成像实验室并进行操作，在那里它将补充以前从NCRR获得的赠款购买的小动物PET和光学成像系统。所要求的特定MicroCT单元非常适合用户提出的体外和体内应用，即，它提供超高(10 FM)空间分辨率和用于骨骼研究的复杂分析软件、用于活体动物连续扫描应用的可接受辐射剂量、用于高分辨率体内扫描的生理选通能力和大口径以适应用于微型PET研究的动物种类范围。所需仪器的添加将极大地增强现有小动物分子成像设施提供的信息，并提高南加州大学和洛马林达大学由小灵通资助的研究人员在癌症和骨骼发育/疾病领域工作的生产率。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant):Recent engineering advances in the instrumentation for medical imaging have produced miniaturized versions of x-ray, radionuclear and magnetic resonance scanners for studies in small laboratory animals. This, coupled with increasingly sophisticated, transgenic mouse models, is driving a revolution in the investigation of disease and developmental processes in vivo at the whole-animal level. This interdisciplinary proposal requests funding for a small-animal x-ray computed tomography scanner ("microCT"). The users are in the fields of radiology/nuclear medicine, medicine, pathology, biochemistry/molecular biology, orthopedic surgery, thoracic surgery, oncology and dentistry. The projects relate to bone development and osteoporosis, as well as to chemo- and antiangiognesis therapy of cancer. Applications of the proposed microCT scanner will include anatomic imaging for correlation with functional images from in vivo, small-animal PET and optical imagers; serial monitoring of metastatic tumor development in animal models; serial, in vivo, quantitative monitoring of normal and pathologic bone development and the effects of diet and genetic alteration on bone growth in transgenic murine models; and ultra-high resolution, in vitro, quantitative imaging of bone specimens in relation to bone development and response to diet and genetic modifications. During the last several years, a Molecular Imaging Center has been established at USC with support from an NIH/ NCIP20 planning grant. The requested microCT scanner will be housed and operated in Center's Molecular Imaging Laboratory, where it will complement small-animal PET and optical imaging systems purchased with previous grants from the NCRR. The particular microCT unit requested is well suited for both the in vitro and in vivo applications presented by the users, viz., it provides ultra-high (10 fm) spatial resolution and sophisticated analysis software for bone studies, acceptable radiation dosage for serial scanning applications in living animals, physiologic gating capability for high resolution in vivo scanning and large bore to accommodate the range of animal species used for micro PET studies. Addition of the requested instrument will greatly enhance the information provided by the existing small-animal molecular imaging facility as well as increase the productivity of assembled PHs-funded investigators at USC and Loma Linda University who are working in the areas of cancer and bone development/disease.