Novel Approach to Repeated Arterial Blood Sampling in Small Animal PET: Application in a Test-Retest Study with the Adenosine A1 Receptor Ligand [11C]MPDX

• Published in: Molecular imaging and biology Vol. 18; no. 5; pp. 715 - 723
• Main Authors: Sijbesma, Jürgen W. A., Zhou, Xiaoyun, Vállez García, David, Houwertjes, Martin C., Doorduin, Janine, Kwizera, Chantal, Maas, Bram, Meerlo, Peter, Dierckx, Rudi A., Slart, Riemer H. J. A., Elsinga, Philip H., van Waarde, Aren
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01.10.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Animals; Blood Specimen Collection - methods; Body Weight; Imaging; Ligands; Male; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Positron-Emission Tomography - methods; Radiology; Rats, Wistar; Receptor, Adenosine A1 - metabolism; Reproducibility of Results; Research Article; Xanthines - chemistry; Brain; Test-retest reproducibility; Positron emission tomography; Arterial blood sampling; Adenosine A1 receptor
• ISSN: 1536-1632; 1860-2002
• DOI: 10.1007/s11307-016-0954-9

Purpose Small animal positron emission tomography (PET) can be used to detect small changes in neuroreceptor availability. This often requires rapid arterial blood sampling. However, current catheterization procedures do not allow repeated blood sampling. We have developed a procedure which allows arterial sampling on repeated occasions in the same animal. Procedures Eleven male Wistar rats were two times catheterized via a superficial branch of a femoral artery and scanned with [ 11 C]MPDX and blood sampling. PET images were co-registered to a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) template. Regional tracer distribution volumes ( V T ) in the brain were calculated by the Logan analysis. The procedure was repeated after 1 week. Results Surgery was successful in 90 % of the cases, and discomfort was minor. The V T data showed small differences between test and retest, low between subject variability, and a strong agreement between and within subjects. Conclusion Repeated quantitative imaging with a high reproducibility is possible with this approach.