A High Field 9.4 Tesla Animal MRI/MRS System

描述（由申请人提供）： 位于伯明翰的亚拉巴马大学（UAB）和综合癌症中心（CCC）致力于新成立的体内磁共振成像研究中心（MRIRC）的成功。医学院经历了巨大的增长，目前在美国国立卫生研究院赠款方面排名第13。该MRIRC将得到综合癌症中心和基因治疗中心的大力支持。其他支持来自医学、药理学、病理学、放射肿瘤学、放射学和血液学/肿瘤学部门。 如最后一段所述，癌症中心附属部门以及非癌症中心部门的研究人员对基因相关项目中基础和转化研究的尖端NMR系统的需求日益增加。脂质MRS、快速扩散成像和扩散加权MRS已被证明可用于提供细胞凋亡各个阶段的标志物（综述参见Evelhoch et al.2000）。在研究血管通透性、血管体积、血流和组织灌注对抗VEGF（Brasch et al. 1997和Sipkins et al. 1998）和抗VEGF受体抗体（Ng et al，未发表的人体数据）的响应的改变中，已经证明了动态对比增强MRI。具有高时间和空间分辨率的快速MRI和MRS正朝着更有利于分子生物学研究和临床应用的方向迅速发展。由于这些分子生物学项目中的大多数都是在啮齿动物、小兔子和犬科动物中研究相对较小的器官和组织区域，因此需要高场和高梯度NMR系统来在小对象中获得更高的空间和时间分辨率。申报的9.4T系统在20 cm（或30 cm待定）孔径系统中具有更高的梯度（400 mT/m），可在快速动态成像序列中获得更好的空间分辨率。它还增加了S/N比和化学位移分离。为了能够保持在这个令人兴奋的研究领域的最前沿，需要提供这样一个尖端的NMR系统。 高场9.4T/20 cm水平NMR系统还能够进行1H和31 P以外的NMR测量，例如19 F、13 C、23 Na、15 N、7 Li和其他可能具有临床重要性的测量。水平200 mm孔磁体还将有助于使用多切片脉冲序列同时采集小鼠大脑阵列（5-10只小鼠）的MRI。通过适当的线圈设计，可以同时获得来自同一感兴趣区域的多核MRS和MRI。PI和他的同事在设计各种类型的高Q线圈方面经验丰富。该系统还将促进二维同质和异质核光谱学，以提供酶促反应的动力学信息，简化复杂的光谱，并允许检测不太敏感的核，如13 C和15 N。该系统应该能够提供所需的大部分功能，以推进我们在体内的MRS和MRI研究的动物概述在各种支持的项目。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC) are committed to the success of the newly established in vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging Research Center (MRIRC). The School of Medicine has experienced enormous growth, currently ranking 13th in the country in terms of NIH grants. This MRIRC will have major support from the Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Gene Therapy Center. Other supports are from the Departments of Medicine, Pharmacology, Pathology, Radiation Oncology, Radiology, and the Division of Hematology/Oncology. There is an increased need for a cutting-edge NMR system for basic and translational research in gene-related projects for researchers in Cancer Center affiliated departments and also to non-cancer center departments as described in the last paragraph. Lipid MRS, fast diffusion imaging and diffusion-weighted MRS have been shown to be useful in providing the markers for various stages of apoptosis (for a review, see Evelhoch et al. 2000). Dynamic contrast enhanced MRI has been demonstrated in studying the alteration of vascular permeability, vascular volume, blood flow and tissue perfusion in response to anti-VEGF (Brasch et al. 1997 and Sipkins et al. 1998) and anti-VEGF receptor antibodies (Ng et al, unpublished human data). Fast MRI and MRS with spatial and high temporal resolution are rapidly developing in a direction that is more useful for molecular biology research and clinical application. As most of these molecular biology projects are investigating relatively small organs and tissue areas in rodents and small rabbits and canines, a high field and high gradients NMR system is needed to obtain higher spatial and temporal resolution in a small subject. The proposed 9.4T system has higher gradients (400 mT/m) in 20 cm (or 30 cm pending) bore size system for better spatial resolution in fast dynamic imaging sequences. It also increases S/N ratio and chemical shift separation. To be able to stay in the forefront of this exciting research field requires the availability of such a cutting-edge NMR system. The high field 9.4T/20cm horizontal NMR system is also capable to perform NMR measurements other than 1H and 31P, such as 19F, 13C, 23Na, 15N, 7Li and others that are potentially clinically important. The horizontal 200 mm bore magnet will also facilitates simultaneous acquisitions of MRI of an array of mouse brains (5-10 mice) using multiple slice pulse sequences. Simultaneous multi-nuclei MRS and MRI from the same region of interest can be obtained with appropriate coil design. The PI and his associates are experienced in designing various types of high-Q coils. The system would also facilitate two-dimensional homo- and hetero-nuclear spectroscopy to provide kinetic information of enzymatic reactions, simplify complex spectra and allow one to detect less sensitive nuclei, such as 13C and 15N. The system should be able to provide most of the features that are needed for advancing our in vivo MRS and MRI studies of animals as outlined in various supported projects.