title: Small-animal PET: a promising, non-invasive tool in pre-clinical research.
abstract: Today, non-invasive imaging techniques are significantly contributing to the understanding of molecular processes in vivo. Positron emission tomography (PET) is a scintigraphic medical imaging modality that uses radiolabelled molecules (tracers), provides quantitative tomographic images and allows non-invasive assessment of the biodistribution of radioactive substances in vivo. The assessment of pathological glucose metabolism is the clinically best-established application of PET today; however, a multitude of different tracers are available to assess diverse physiological processes. The growing interest in pre-clinical imaging studies, in biological and medical basic research, as well as in pharmaceutical research, has fostered the recent growth in small-animal PET. Small-animal PET can be applied to enable the transfer from molecular findings in vitro to in vivo applications in humans, from bench to bed side.
authors.affiliation: Klinik und Poliklinik für Nuklearmedizin, Universitätsklinikum Münster, Münster, Germany. uta.schnoeckel@uni-muenster.de
authors.forename: Uta
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Schnöckel
authors.forename: Sven
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Hermann
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Stegger
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Law
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuhlmann
authors.forename: Otmar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Schober
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schäfers
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schäfers
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D004353:Drug Evaluation, Preclinical / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D010599:Pharmacokinetics; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods*; D011849:Radioactive Tracers; D051381:Rats; D014018:Tissue Distribution; D051598:Whole Body Imaging / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D011849:Radioactive Tracers