Publication Date
8-8-2022
Journal
Biosensors
DOI
10.3390/bios12080616
PMID
36005011
PMCID
PMC9406174
PubMedCentral® Posted Date
8-8-2022
PubMedCentral® Full Text Version
Post-print
Published Open-Access
yes
Keywords
Animals, Brain, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Manganese, Mice, Rats, Spectrum Analysis, Wakefulness, MRI, mouse, animal holder, awake, MEMRI, rs-fMRI, anesthesia
Abstract
Anesthesia is often used in preclinical imaging studies that incorporate mouse or rat models. However, multiple reports indicate that anesthesia has significant physiological impacts. Thus, there has been great interest in performing imaging studies in awake, unanesthetized animals to obtain accurate results without the confounding physiological effects of anesthesia. Here, we describe a newly designed mouse holder that is interfaceable with existing MRI systems and enables awake in vivo mouse imaging. This holder significantly reduces head movement of the awake animal compared to previously designed holders and allows for the acquisition of improved anatomical images. In addition to applications in anatomical T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), we also describe applications in acquiring 31P spectra, manganese-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MEMRI) transport rates and resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) in awake animals and describe a successful conditioning paradigm for awake imaging. These data demonstrate significant differences in 31P spectra, MEMRI transport rates, and rs-fMRI connectivity between anesthetized and awake animals, emphasizing the importance of performing functional studies in unanesthetized animals. Furthermore, these studies demonstrate that the mouse holder presented here is easy to construct and use, compatible with standard Bruker systems for mouse imaging, and provides rigorous results in awake mice.
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Biochemistry, Biophysics, and Structural Biology Commons, Biology Commons, Medical Sciences Commons, Medical Specialties Commons
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