Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of Small Animals

MRI is increasingly used in investigations of disease or injury models in experimental research with small animals.  MRI has also become an essential tool in pre-clinical trials to test the efficacy of a drug and or its potential for treatment of a disease.  Multimodal data acquisition capabilities of MRI allow obtaining critical information on anatomy, structure, function, hemodynamics, biochemistry (metabolites) and physiology from live subjects.  With MRI, the underlying tissue can be visualized from different imaging planes. Also, the same subject can be scanned repetitively over extended period of time without disturbing the natural course of the disease or progression of injury pathology.  In longitudinal studies, each subject acts as its own control.  This facilitates the use of fewer animals, better control of the experiments and data acquisition, reduces the variability between the animals and increases the statistical reliability of the data.

MUSC is about to complete the installation of an experimental 7T Bruker Scanner to meet the imaging needs of the research community in our institute.  This resource is expected to support and contribute the scientific investigations in the areas including cardiovascular, neuroscience and oncology research with small animals. For example, in cardiac MRI studies, cine, tagged and contrast-enhanced images will be gathered from different rodent models to define the relationship between property, structure and function of the myocardium. 

In oncology, longitudinal tumor imaging and elastography imaging in small animal oncology models will be performed.  In neuroscience, rodent models of stroke, Alzheimer and traumatic brain injury will be investigated.   Also, spinal cord injuries in rodent models will be visualized and the spatial and temporal course of neuropathological changes will be characterized. 

Spinal angiograms will be gathered to depict the complex network of arterial blood supply to the spinal cord and its parenchyma.  Contrast enhanced acquisitions with paramagnetic contrast agents will be performed to illustrate the spatial course of the descending corticospinal tract, the areas of compromised blood spinal cord barrier permeability following an injury, and the connectivity of axonal fibers in the injured spinal cord.  Diffusion tensor images will be acquired to describe microstructural organization of the spinal cord tissue and orientation of its fibers and to demonstrate the capability of this technique to detect axonal integrity or loss of myelin in injured cords.