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In vivo diffuse optical imaging of small animals has been employed for over 20 years. In-spite of the advantages offered by optical imaging such as wide availability of optical reporters and probes, accurate in vivo optical imaging suffers from a major obstacle; light scattering and absorption in tissues. This results in strong signal attenuation and loss of directionality, making optical imaging unsuited for high-resolution quantitative imaging.
These difficulties have led many researchers to use xenograft models, in which tumors are grown subcutaneously rather than in their normal anatomical location, thereby reducing the impact of depth on optical quantitation. However, such models often result in unrealistic growth behavior and abnormal cellular composition of tumors that are not in their normal biochemical environment, making them often unreliable compared with orthotopic models.
By using a new technique, called X-ray CT-guided Optical imaging, MILabs has been able to eliminate most of these shortcomings of in vivo optical imaging. This is illustrated in the following selected innovative user-applications of MILabs’ hybrid Optical/CT technology (OI/CT).
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