The preclinical MR scanner is a multipurpose system for high-resolution MR spectroscopy and imaging of animals. HBIC has a 9.4 Tesla (400Mhz) superconducting magnet equipped with a state-of-the-art Bruker AVANCE NEO Spectrometer, which was funded by a $1.5 million NIH High End Instrumentation grant.

The instrument is equipped with optimized acquisition sequences for: 2D and/or 3D high resolution anatomical imaging; diffusion and diffusion tensor imaging; flow imaging; cardiac imaging; dynamic contrast imaging; functional MRI; and single and multi-voxel magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Specialist coils for imaging mice and rats are used to ensure highest quality images. The console is also loaded with Bruker Topspin (v4.0.9) software to process NMR spectroscopy data. A small animal MRI-compatible monitoring and gating system (Model 1030; Small Animal Instruments) is used to monitor core temperature, ECG, blood oxygen level, respiration rate and heart rate.

Monitoring and physiological recording
An MR-compatible small animal monitoring and gating system (SA Instruments, Inc., Stony Brook, NY) is used regularly in our studies to monitor the animal vital signs (temperature, ECG, and respiration) and to gate the scanner on the ECG and/or respiratory cycles. The 9.4 T MRI suite is equipped with the following: anesthesia (VMS, Matrx, Inc., Orchard Park, NY), pulsed oximeter (MouseOx, Starr Life Sciences, Oakmont, PA), circulating water heating pad (Polystat temperature controller, Cole-Palmer) and temperature controller (Digi-sense, Cole-Palmer), rodent ventilators (Model 683, Harvard Apparatus and Model 7025, Ugo Basile Biological Apparatus), and MR-compatible syringe pumps (PHD 2000, Harvard Apparatus)

Sample Analysis
The HBIC Sample Analysis Laboratory is equipped with blood chemical analyzer (Micro-Stat Multi-Assay Analyzer - GM7, Analox), blood gas analyzer (Rapidlab 248, Bayer Diagnostics), and capnometer (Capnomac Ultima, Datex Omeda). It also has a sub-80 degree refrigerator to store biological samples.

Animal welfare and handling
The Hoglund Biomedical Imaging Center operates as a clean facility allowing transfer of experimental animals between the KU Laboratory Animal Resources. Animals are housed in the animal housing room, which is maintained by the Laboratory Animal Resources personnel on a daily basis.

A surgery room is located adjacent to the 9.4T MRI suite and the animal housing room. This room is equipped with stereotaxic surgery platform (Kopf Instruments, Tujunga, CA), VMS anesthesia machine (Matrx, Inc., Orchard Park, NY), active anesthesia scavenging system (Molecular Imaging Products, Bend, OR), surgical microscope, and all instruments needed for minor small animal surgeries. A stereotaxic controlled cortical impact device (Impact One, Leica Microsystems, Buffalo Grove, IL) is available for mouse and rat traumatic brain injury studies. Rapid metabolic fixation is provided by a 4 kW microwave system (model GA5013, Gerling Applied Engineering, Inc., Modesto, CA).

The HBIC animal facility also has 25 sq. ft. of benchtop space available for rodent behavioral testing. It is equipped with a rotorod apparatus (Accuscan Instruments, Columbus, OH), and beam walk apparatus (custom-built, in-house).

Unit Contacts:

Animal Imaging

Janna Harris, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor and Director, Animal Imaging
913-588-9076, jharris2@kumc.edu 

Munish Chauhan, Ph.D., Senior Scientist, Animal Imaging Core 
913-588-9079, mchauhan2@kumc.edu