Small animal imaging modalities to evaluate tumor progression and radiotherapy protocols in tumor-bearing mice.
Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging technique used to observe biological processes happening in the body in real time. It is widely used in the human clinic for e.g cancer diagnosis. Preclinical PET imaging is applied to small animals and can be complemented with other imaging techniques such as computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) and bioluminescence imaging (BLI) to monitor tumor development in rodents.Image guided radiotherapy (RT) comprises the delivery of ionizing radiation, in a single or small number of fractions, with high precision to localized tumors, while minimizing exposure to normal tissues.These techniques are available at the newly established preclinical PETcore and a body of research is being built upon them.
The aim of this application is to establish and validate animal models (sc. allografts), along with experimental protocols for PET, MR, BLI, CT imaging and RT in tumor-bearing mice (small subcutaneous tumors which expect to have minor effects on the animals well-being). Developing and validating standardised procedures are required to ensure good animal practices and best research outcomes.
Glucose and amino-acid metabolism as well as hypoxia and cell proliferation will be evaluated by different PET radiotracers. Different RT regimes will be tested, validated and developed in subcutaneous tumor models for glioma and lung cancer. Animals will be monitored daily throughout the whole study. For protocols involving BLI, specific albino animals and luciferase-transfected tumor cell lines will be used.
In addition, animals will be sedated during imaging and treatment procedures and euthanized at the end of the protocol.
The techniques applied here contribute to the 3Rs: Reduction: preclinical imaging allows serial non invasive examination and multiple data collection of individual animals. Refinement: changes in the biological processes can be detected and treated at an earlier stage compared to traditional methods and hence earlier humane and scientific endpoints can be established in order to reduce the burden on the animals. Replacement: Whenever possible; the testing, validation and training will apply phantoms instead of live animals. However, the use of tumor-bearing animals is unavoidable to study PET imaging and RT treatments, since the systems (irradiator, scanner, radiotracers) require detailed settings and calibrations.
We are applying for 220 mice. Protocols will be developed and validated and data retrieved will be used for further analysis at our facility.
The aim of this application is to establish and validate animal models (sc. allografts), along with experimental protocols for PET, MR, BLI, CT imaging and RT in tumor-bearing mice (small subcutaneous tumors which expect to have minor effects on the animals well-being). Developing and validating standardised procedures are required to ensure good animal practices and best research outcomes.
Glucose and amino-acid metabolism as well as hypoxia and cell proliferation will be evaluated by different PET radiotracers. Different RT regimes will be tested, validated and developed in subcutaneous tumor models for glioma and lung cancer. Animals will be monitored daily throughout the whole study. For protocols involving BLI, specific albino animals and luciferase-transfected tumor cell lines will be used.
In addition, animals will be sedated during imaging and treatment procedures and euthanized at the end of the protocol.
The techniques applied here contribute to the 3Rs: Reduction: preclinical imaging allows serial non invasive examination and multiple data collection of individual animals. Refinement: changes in the biological processes can be detected and treated at an earlier stage compared to traditional methods and hence earlier humane and scientific endpoints can be established in order to reduce the burden on the animals. Replacement: Whenever possible; the testing, validation and training will apply phantoms instead of live animals. However, the use of tumor-bearing animals is unavoidable to study PET imaging and RT treatments, since the systems (irradiator, scanner, radiotracers) require detailed settings and calibrations.
We are applying for 220 mice. Protocols will be developed and validated and data retrieved will be used for further analysis at our facility.