Characterizing a photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging platform for preclinical murine longitudinal studies

Weylan R. Thompson; Hans-Peter F. Brecht; Vassili Ivanov; Anthony M. Yu; Diego S. Dumani; Dylan J. Lawrence; Stanislav Y. Emelianov; Sergey A. Ermilov

doi:10.1117/1.JBO.28.3.036001

7 March 2023 Characterizing a photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging platform for preclinical murine longitudinal studies

Weylan R. Thompson, Hans-Peter F. Brecht, Vassili Ivanov, Anthony M. Yu, Diego S. Dumani, Dylan J. Lawrence, Stanislav Y. Emelianov, Sergey A. Ermilov

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Biomedical Optics, Vol. 28, Issue 3, 036001 (March 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.28.3.036001

Abstract

Significance

To effectively study preclinical animal models, medical imaging technology must be developed with a high enough resolution and sensitivity to perform anatomical, functional, and molecular assessments. Photoacoustic (PA) tomography provides high resolution and specificity, and fluorescence (FL) molecular tomography provides high sensitivity; the combination of these imaging modes will enable a wide range of research applications to be studied in small animals.

Aim

We introduce and characterize a dual-modality PA and FL imaging platform using in vivo and phantom experiments.

Approach

The imaging platform’s detection limits were characterized through phantom studies that determined the PA spatial resolution, PA sensitivity, optical spatial resolution, and FL sensitivity.

Results

The system characterization yielded a PA spatial resolution of 173 ± 17 μm in the transverse plane and 640 ± 120 μm in the longitudinal axis, a PA sensitivity detection limit not less than that of a sample with absorption coefficient μ_a = 0.258 cm^{− 1}, an optical spatial resolution of 70 μm in the vertical axis and 112 μm in the horizontal axis, and a FL sensitivity detection limit not <0.9 μM concentration of IR-800. The scanned animals displayed in three-dimensional renders showed high-resolution anatomical detail of organs.

Conclusions

The combined PA and FL imaging system has been characterized and has demonstrated its ability to image mice in vivo, proving its suitability for biomedical imaging research applications.

CC BY: © The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.

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Weylan R. Thompson, Hans-Peter F. Brecht, Vassili Ivanov, Anthony M. Yu, Diego S. Dumani, Dylan J. Lawrence, Stanislav Y. Emelianov, and Sergey A. Ermilov "Characterizing a photoacoustic and fluorescence imaging platform for preclinical murine longitudinal studies," Journal of Biomedical Optics 28(3), 036001 (7 March 2023). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JBO.28.3.036001

Received: 10 October 2022; Accepted: 7 February 2023; Published: 7 March 2023

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