Micro Computerized Tomography Imaging System

描述（由申请人提供）：医学成像仪器的最新工程进展已经产生了用于小型实验室动物研究的小型化X射线、放射性和磁共振扫描仪。再加上日益复杂的转基因小鼠模型，正在推动整个动物水平的疾病和体内发育过程研究的革命。这项跨学科的提案要求为小动物X射线计算机断层扫描仪（“microCT”）提供资金。用户来自放射学/核医学、医学、病理学、生物化学/分子生物学、整形外科、胸外科、肿瘤学和牙科等领域。这些项目涉及骨发育和骨质疏松症，以及癌症的化疗和抗血管生成疗法。所提出的microCT扫描仪的应用将包括解剖成像，用于与来自体内、小动物PET和光学成像仪的功能图像相关联;动物模型中转移性肿瘤发展的系列监测;正常和病理性骨发展的系列体内定量监测以及饮食和遗传改变对转基因小鼠模型中骨生长的影响;以及与骨发育和对饮食和遗传修饰的反应有关的骨样本的超高分辨率体外定量成像。在过去的几年中，在美国国立卫生研究院/NCIP 20计划拨款的支持下，南加州大学建立了一个分子成像中心。所要求的microCT扫描仪将在中心的分子成像实验室中安装和运行，在那里它将补充用NCRR先前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，它为骨骼研究提供超高（10 fm）空间分辨率和复杂的分析软件，为活体动物的连续扫描应用提供可接受的辐射剂量，为高分辨率体内扫描提供生理门控能力，并提供大口径以适应用于微型PET研究的动物物种范围。所要求的仪器的增加将大大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琳达大学组装的PH资助的研究人员的生产力，他们正在癌症和骨发育/疾病领域工作。

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.