Proton MRI as a noninvasive tool to assess elastase-induced lung damage in spontaneously breathing rats.

Elastase-induced changes in lung morphology and function were detected in spontaneously breathing rats using conventional proton MRI at 4.7 T. A single dose of porcine pancreatic elastase (75 U/100 g body weight) or vehicle (saline) was administered intratracheally (i.t.) to male Brown Norway (BN) rats. MRI fluid signals were detected in the lungs 24 hr after administration of elastase and resolved within 2 weeks. These results correlated with perivascular edema and cellular infiltration observed histologically. Reductions in MRI signal intensity of the lung parenchyma, and increases in lung volume were detected as early as 2 weeks following elastase administration and remained uniform throughout the study, which lasted 8 weeks. Observations were consistent with air trapping resulting from emphysema detected histologically. In a separate experiment, animals were treated daily intraperitoneally (i.p.) with all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA; 500 microg/kg body weight) or its vehicle (triglyceride oil) starting on day 21 after elastase administration and continuing for 12 days. Under these conditions, ATRA did not elicit a reversal of elastase-induced lung damage as measured by MRI and histology. The present approach complements other validated applications of proton MRI in experimental lung research as a method for assessing drugs in rat models of respiratory diseases.

Identification with MRI of the pleura as a major site of the acute inflammatory effects induced by ovalbumin and endotoxin challenge in the airways of the rat.

Inflammatory effects in the rat lung have been investigated, non-invasively by MRI, at early time points (3 and 6 h) after ovalbumin (OA) or endotoxin (LPS) challenges. Six hours after challenge with OA, a strong, even inflammatory signal was present around the periphery of the lung in a region corresponding to the pleura. Histological analysis confirmed the presence of marked edema associated with the pleural cavity of OA-treated animals. Lower levels of pleural edema were observed in MRI and histological evaluation of LPS-treated animals and no abnormality was observed in actively sensitized and naïve, saline-treated groups. Diffuse edematous signals were detected in the lung 3 and 6 h after challenge with OA or LPS; the signal volumes were larger at both time points following OA instillation. Bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) fluid analysis performed 6 h after challenge revealed increased levels of protein and greater cellular activation in OA- than in LPS-treated animals. Furthermore, increased levels of peribronchial edema were found by histology 6 h after OA. BAL fluid and histological assessments demonstrated that the inflammatory signals were due to edema and not mucus as no significant changes in BAL mucin concentrations or differences in goblet cells were identified between OA or LPS challenge and their respective vehicle groups. Our data show that MRI is able to detect, non-invasively, inflammatory signals in both the lung and the pleura in spontaneously breathing animals, highlighting its potential to study the consequences of pulmonary insults on both sites.

Near-infrared fluorescence imaging and histology confirm anomalous edematous signal distribution detected in the rat lung by MRI after allergen challenge.

PURPOSE: To address the issue concerning the predominant location, on the left anatomic side, of edematous signals detected by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in the lungs of actively sensitized rats following intratracheal (IT) allergen challenge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Near-infrared fluorescence (NIRF) imaging was used to detect the lobular distribution in the lungs of normal rats of an IT instilled fluorescent dye, Cy5.5. Actively sensitized Brown Norway rats were examined by MRI 24 hours after IT administration of ovalbumin. The perivascular edema was quantified by histology in the different lobes of lungs removed from the same animals immediately after the MRI acquisitions. RESULTS: An uneven distribution of Cy5.5 was found, predominantly on the left lobe, paralleling the localized development of allergic pulmonary inflammation in the left lobe detected as edematous signal by MRI and confirmed by histology. The patterns of the distributions of the dye between and within the lobes were very similar to those of perivascular edema assessed histologically. CONCLUSION: The data indicate a relationship between the molecular deposition of the dye detected by NIRF in the lungs and the distribution of allergen eliciting the development of pulmonary inflammation in actively rats. The combination of MRI with NIRF imaging may provide important information in preclinical pharmacologic research in the area of airway diseases. While MRI is able to address the effects of compounds on the inflammatory response in models of airways diseases, NIRF imaging may provide important insights on drug distribution and interaction in the lung, being thus suited for molecular imaging studies.