title: Murine endoscopy for in vivo multimodal imaging of carcinogenesis and assessment of intestinal wound healing and inflammation.
abstract: Mouse models are widely used to study pathogenesis of human diseases and to evaluate diagnostic procedures as well as therapeutic interventions preclinically. However, valid assessment of pathological alterations often requires histological analysis, and when performed ex vivo, necessitates death of the animal. Therefore in conventional experimental settings, intra-individual follow-up examinations are rarely possible. Thus, development of murine endoscopy in live mice enables investigators for the first time to both directly visualize the gastrointestinal mucosa and also repeat the procedure to monitor for alterations. Numerous applications for in vivo murine endoscopy exist, including studying intestinal inflammation or wound healing, obtaining mucosal biopsies repeatedly, and to locally administer diagnostic or therapeutic agents using miniature injection catheters. Most recently, molecular imaging has extended diagnostic imaging modalities allowing specific detection of distinct target molecules using specific photoprobes. In conclusion, murine endoscopy has emerged as a novel cutting-edge technology for diagnostic experimental in vivo imaging and may significantly impact on preclinical research in various fields.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine B, University Hospital Münster.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brückner
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine B, University Hospital Münster.
authors.forename: Philipp
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lenz
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine B, University Hospital Münster.
authors.forename: Tobias M
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: Nowacki
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine B, University Hospital Münster.
authors.forename: Friederike
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pott
authors.affiliation: Department of Pediatric Rheumatology and Immunology, University Children's Hospital Münster.
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Foell
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine B, University Hospital Münster; Dominik.Bettenworth@ukmuenster.de.
authors.forename: Dominik
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bettenworth
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D063646:Carcinogenesis / Q000473:pathology*; D003092:Colitis / Q000473:pathology*; D003110:Colonic Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology*; D003113:Colonoscopy / Q000379:methods; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D005453:Fluorescence; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D064847:Multimodal Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D014945:Wound Healing