title: Molecular Ultrasound Imaging of Tissue Inflammation Using an Animal Model of Acute Kidney Injury.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of molecular ultrasound (US) imaging for monitoring the early inflammatory effects following acute kidney injury.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population of rats underwent 30 min of renal ischemia (acute kidney injury, N = 6) or sham injury (N = 4) using established surgical methods. Animals were divided and molecular US imaging was performed during the bolus injection of a targeted microbubble (MB) contrast agent to either P-selectin or vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1). Imaging was performed before surgery and 4 and 24 h thereafter. After manual segmentation of renal tissue space, the molecular US signal was calculated as the difference between time-intensity curve data before MB injection and after reaching steady-state US image enhancement. All animals were terminated after the 24 h imaging time point and kidneys excised for immunohistochemical (IHC) analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Renal inflammation was analyzed using molecular US imaging. While results using the P-selectin and VCAM-1 targeted MBs were comparable, it appears that the former was more sensitive to biomarker expression. All molecular US imaging measures had a positive correlation with IHC findings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acute kidney injury is a serious disease in need of improved noninvasive methods to help diagnose the extent of injury and monitor the tissue throughout disease progression. Molecular US imaging appears well suited to address this challenge and more research is warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. hoyt@uab.edu.|Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. hoyt@uab.edu.
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hoyt
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Jason M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Warram
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Dezhi
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Sithira
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ratnayaka
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Amie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Traylor
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA.
authors.forename: Anupam
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Agarwal
mesh_terms: D058186:Acute Kidney Injury / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging*; D000818:Animals; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008297:Male; D057054:Molecular Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014463:Ultrasonography
keywords: Acute kidney injury; Contrast agent; Ischemia-reperfusion injury; Molecular imaging; Targeted microbubbles; Tissue inflammation; Ultrasound