ABSTRACT
X-ray microcomputed tomography (micro-CT) with a respiratory gating system is a useful non-invasive approach to evaluate lung tumor development in living animal models. Here micro-CT was applied for the detection of lung lesions induced by a single intraperitoneal injection (250 mg/kg) of urethane in male A/J mice, at 2-week intervals from 10 to 30 weeks after carcinogen exposure. In micro-CT cross sections, lung tumor images were easily distinguished from surrounding non-tumorous tissues, the smallest detected tumor being approximately 0.5 mm in diameter. All of the urethane-treated mice (n = 15) developed lung tumors and the number of tumors developed in each mouse was 8.6 +/- 3.9. Six tumors, determined histopathologically to be adenocarcinomas, were detected, growing at different rates during the experimental period. The most aggressive carcinoma, increasing in diameter from 0.9 to 3.5 mm within 8 weeks, was a solid-type nodule with a clear tumor margin on the micro-CT imaging. Other tumors, histopathologically adenomas, grew slowly or moderately. The results provide evidence that micro-CT is a useful non-invasive imaging approach for evaluating the characteristics and growth of lung tumors in mice.
Subject(s)
Lung Neoplasms/diagnostic imaging , Tomography, X-Ray Computed/methods , Animals , Carcinogens/pharmacology , Disease Models, Animal , Lung Neoplasms/chemically induced , Lung Neoplasms/pathology , Male , Mice , Mice, Inbred Strains , Respiration , Sensitivity and Specificity , Urethane/pharmacologyABSTRACT
The objective of this study was to introduce the technical utility of micro-computed tomography (CT) with 27-mum resolution by cone-beam CT algorithm. Whole-body micro-CT scans were performed to honeybee. Two- and three-dimensional image analyses were performed by originally developed and available open-source software for acquired images. The original contribution of this work is to describe the technical characteristics of the X-ray micro-CT system, keeping a small experimental insect in a unique condition. Micro-CT may be used as a rapid prototyping tool to research and understand the high-resolution system with Feldkamp cone-beam reconstruction.
