Photoacoustic tomography and molecular fluorescence imaging: dual modality imaging of small animal brains in vivo

Abstract

We present a dual modality imaging technique by combining photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging for the study of animal model tumors. PAT provides high-resolution structural images of tumor angiogenesis, and fluorescence imaging offers high sensitivity to molecular probes for tumor detection. Coregistration of the PAT and fluorescence images was performed on nude mice with M21 human melanoma cell lines with αvβ3 integrin expression. An integrin αvβ3-targeted peptide-ICG conjugated NIR fluorescent contrast agent was used as the molecular probe for tumor detection. PAT was employed to noninvasively image the brain structures and the angiogenesis associated with tumors in nude mice. Coregistration of the PAT and fluorescence images was used in this study to visualize tumor location, angiogenesis, and brain structure simultaneously.