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In vivo imaging of cartilage and bone
Author(s) -
Weinans Harrie
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.27.1_supplement.317.3
Subject(s) - in vivo , cartilage , preclinical imaging , molecular imaging , osteoarthritis , biomedical engineering , pathology , medicine , biology , anatomy , alternative medicine , microbiology and biotechnology
In‐vivo imaging in animal experiments has recently made enormous progression. Several clinical imaging techniques have been tuned to micro versions for small animal research with resolutions in the range of 20 microns for CT. Micro‐CT can be connected to other small animal imaging modalities such as luminescence and SPECT, thereby providing great opportunities for in‐vivo tracing of molecules, cells and their interactions. In research for skeletal diseases such as osteoarthritis, osteoporosis or bone regeneration a variety of mouse and rat models can be studied with in‐vivo micro‐CT thereby making sequential scans of individual animals at different time points in the disease or treatment process. Sometimes this is done in connection with other imaging techniques to further unravel the biological mechanisms. Micro‐CT can also be applied with contrast agents that diffuse in cartilage dependent on properties related to tissue quality such as e.g. the concentration of glycosaminoglycans. Altogether in‐vivo micro‐CT enables an enormous improvement in evaluating skeletal tissue in experimental animal models that triggers or speeds up the testing of new intervention strategies.