in-vivo microCT for imaging of small animals and specimens

我们申请一种体内小动物微型ct，用于临床前生物医学研究的非侵入性解剖和功能成像，以取代目前在大学医学中心Göttingen （UMG）操作的唯一的体内微型ct。这确保了UMG完善的基于x射线的体内成像平台得到进一步发展，并将其提供给尽可能多的工作组用于其科学项目，同时考虑到与动物福利有关的方面。这包括基础研究领域，如转基因小鼠的体内表型，活体动物耳蜗内人工耳蜗植入物的确切位置的表示，以及通过测量肿瘤体积随时间的变化来评估肿瘤学中的新治疗方法。新系统还允许进一步使用UMG开发的基于x射线的肺功能测量技术。它将用于监测疾病进展和评估新疗法的有效性，不仅用于肿瘤，还用于肺部、感染性和代谢性疾病。体内微CT系统的设计与临床CT的设计相对应，即待检查的动物躺在检查台上，而x射线管和检测器进行联合旋转。与临床CT相比，微CT系统体积更小，通常被设计为一个完整的保护系统，以确保辐射安全。此外，在小于100µm的范围内，它可以实现更高的空间分辨率，这对于小鼠、大鼠、斑马鱼等实验动物来说，由于它们的体积小，需要更高的空间分辨率。“正常”的微ct需要更高的分辨率来详细显示离体样本，相比之下，活体微ct的记录时间非常短，辐射剂量很低，因此可以在一段时间内纵向监测活体动物（麻醉下），从3R动物保护概念的意义上讲。这样可以在不同时间无创地获得解剖特征和功能信息，对动物友好，从而在各自的研究项目中获得最大的知识。扫描时间短，平均分辨率约为。可达到的20µm允许体内微ct在快速“筛选”的意义上用于组织样品的3D表示，这一过程在经典微ct中由于测量时间很长而不可能实现。目前的体内微ct已经成功地应用于大量的离体研究，如CAM分析（鸡绒毛膜-尿囊膜）和大量人类牙齿的数字化。后者可以优化根管充填研究。

We apply for an in-vivo small animal microCT for non-invasive anatomical and functional imaging in preclinical biomedical research, to replace the only in-vivo microCT currently operated at the University Medical Center Göttingen (UMG). This ensures that the well-established X-ray-based in-vivo imaging platform at the UMG is further developed and that it is made available to as many working groups as possible for their scientific projects, taking into account aspects relevant to animal welfare. This includes both the area of basic research such as the in-vivo phenotyping of transgenic mice, the representation of the exact position of the cochlear implants within the cochlea in living animals and the evaluation of new therapy methods in oncology by measuring tumor volumes over time. The new system would also allow further use of the X-ray-based lung function measurement technique developed at the UMG. It will be used to monitor disease progression and evaluate the effectiveness of new therapies not only for tumors but also for lung, infectious and metabolic diseases. The design of an in-vivo microCT system corresponds to that of a clinical CT, i.e. the animal to be examined rests on an examination table while the X-ray tube and detector perform a combined rotation. In contrast to the clinical CT, microCT systems are smaller and typically designed as a full protection systems to ensure radiation safety. In addition, it achieves a higher spatial resolution in the range of less than 100 µm, which is required for experimental animals such as mice, rats, zebrafish, etc. due to their small size. In contrast to a "normal" microCT, in which significantly higher resolutions are needed for the detailed display of ex-vivo samples, the recording times in the in-vivo microCT are very short and the radiation dose low, so that living animals (under anesthesia) can be monitored longitudinally over the time, in the sense of the 3R concept of animal protection. In this way, anatomical features and functional information are obtained non-invasively and animal-friendly at different times for maximum gain of knowledge in the respective research project. The short scanning times and the average resolution of approx. 20 µm that can be achieved allow the in-vivo microCT to be applied for the 3D representation of tissue samples in the sense of a quick “screening”, a procedure which otherwise in a classic microCTs would be impossible due to the very long measurement times. The current in-vivo microCT has already been used successfully in large variety of ex-vivo studies such as for the analysis of CAM assays (chick chorio-allantoic membrane) and for the digitization of a large number of human teeth. The latter allows optimization of studies on root canal filling.