Service
The ability to slice
the
whole animal and acquire either
nuclear or optical images of each slice provides not only digital
autoradiography images and a means to localize reporters, but also a
high-resolution 3D data set that can be used to calculate tumor burden
and
provide multiplanar correlation of imaging studies. The nuclear and
optical
data will provide validation of single photon, PET and optical images
acquired
in-vivo. Further, high-resolution tissue imaging provides a unique
capability
that may be able to localize probes at the sub-cellular level,
particularly
when probes carry dual radiopharmaceutical and optical reporters.
Applying both
high-resolution autoradiography and optical imaging of the identical
animal
tissue slices in conjunction with optical microscopy available through
the
Digital Imaging Resource may allow the discrimination of
intra- and
extracellular localization of new probes. If receptors or other targets
are
labeled with fluorescent antibodies for optical microscopy,
co-localization of
the reporter can be verified. Specific services include:
- Slicing
an entire rat or mouse from 1 to 40 micron-thick slices
for processing or imaging
- High-resolution
digital autoradiographs (50 µm) of thinly sliced
animals
injected with radioactivity
-
Direct fluorescence digital images
of thinly sliced animals of a
wide variety of fluorophores (Applications for BioRad FX-Pro-plus).
