The development of a dual-modality bioluminescence/ultrasound imaging system marks a significant advancement in preclinical research, particularly for creating accurate 3D tumor models. This system combines the long-term tumor tracking capabilities of bioluminescence imaging with the soft tissue examination strengths of ultrasound imaging. Its effectiveness in delineating tumor boundaries makes it an invaluable tool in oncology and related medical fields, enhancing our understanding of tissue structures and anomalies. The homemade 7.8MHz ultrasound transducers were used to obtain structural images of nude mice, while an EMCCD camera captured functional bioluminescence images. This combination allowed for the reconstruction of 3D bioluminescence emissions, effectively integrating 3D bioluminescence tomography with 3D ultrasound. This dual-modality approach resulted in highly accurate tumor localization and morphology details, as indicated by a high DICE coefficient of 88.5% and minimal localization error of 0.4mm. This demonstrates the system's capability in precise tumor mapping.
Optical imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) is suitable for visualizing tumor vascular imaging and targeting bone structures in small animals. In this study, we developed a novel three-dimensional (3D) NIR-II fluorescence rotational stereo imaging system for conducting 3D tumor vascular imaging and bone imaging in mice with only one NIR-II camera and a rotational stereo vision technique. Our system utilizes a 3D blood vessel reconstruction algorithm to present high-resolution 3D blood vessel maps and skeletal systems through two camera views. This technique allows for the visualization of bone structure and the identification of metabolic diseases such as osteoporosis. We validated the system with custom-made 3D printing phantoms and 4T1 tumor-bearing mice, demonstrating the ability to accurately recover the tumor blood vessels and bones with an imaging depth of 5 mm, an image resolution of 0.15 mm, and a depth resolution of 0.35 mm. This pioneering development provides an effective tool for non-invasive real-time NIR-II fluorescence imaging and is instrumental in understanding the effects of cancer treatments on tumor vessels and bone structure in small animals.
SignificanceOptical imaging in the second near-infrared (NIR-II, 1000 to 1700 nm) region is capable of deep tumor vascular imaging due to low light scattering and low autofluorescence. Non-invasive real-time NIR-II fluorescence imaging is instrumental in monitoring tumor status.AimOur aim is to develop an NIR-II fluorescence rotational stereo imaging system for 360-deg three-dimensional (3D) imaging of whole-body blood vessels, tumor vessels, and 3D contour of mice.ApproachOur study combined an NIR-II camera with a 360-deg rotational stereovision technique for tumor vascular imaging and 3D surface contour for mice. Moreover, self-made NIR-II fluorescent polymer dots were applied in high-contrast NIR-II vascular imaging, along with a 3D blood vessel enhancement algorithm for acquiring high-resolution 3D blood vessel images. The system was validated with a custom-made 3D printing phantom and in vivo experiments of 4T1 tumor‐bearing mice.ResultsThe results showed that the NIR-II 3D 360-deg tumor blood vessels and mice contour could be reconstructed with 0.15 mm spatial resolution, 0.3 mm depth resolution, and 5 mm imaging depth in an ex vivo experiment.ConclusionsThe pioneering development of an NIR-II 3D 360-deg rotational stereo imaging system was first applied in small animal tumor blood vessel imaging and 3D surface contour imaging, demonstrating its capability of reconstructing tumor blood vessels and mice contour. Therefore, the 3D imaging system can be instrumental in monitoring tumor therapy effects.
An innovative dual-modality 3D fluorescence/3D ultrasound tomography system was demonstrated in this research. The system includes an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD), a 660 nm wavelength fiber-coupling laser, and a 10-15 MHz frequency customized single-element ultrasound transducer on a 3D rotating scanning device. We combined multiple ultrasound images from different sections to obtain a whole-body 3D mesh of mice, which provide anatomical information. In this study, we demonstrated the accuracy of this system through a 4T1 tumor-bearing nude mice experiment.
We demonstrate dual modality of free-space fluorescence diffuse optical tomography (FDOT) and handheld ultrasound (US) imaging to reveal both functional and structural information in small animals. FDOT is a noninvasive method for examining the fluorophore inside an object from the light distribution of the surface. In FDOT, a 660-nm continuous wave diode laser was used as an excitation source and an electron-multiplying charge-coupled device (EMCCD) was used for fluorescence data acquisition. Both the laser and EMCCD were mounted on a 360-deg rotation gantry for the transmission optical data collection. The structural information is obtained from a 6- to 17-MHz handheld US linear transducer by single-side access and conducts in the reconstruction as soft priors. The rotation ranges from 0 deg to 360 deg; different rotation degrees, object positions, and parameters were determined for comparison. Both phantom and tissue phantom results demonstrate that fluorophore distribution can be recovered accurately and quantitatively using this imaging system. Finally, an animal study confirms that the system can extract a dual-modality image, validating its feasibility for further in vivo experiments. In all experiments, the error and standard deviation decrease as the rotation degree is increased and the error was reduced to 10% when the rotation degree was increased over 135 deg.
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