Speaker Abstract: S-43
NeuroImaging: New Approaches for Neurotoxicology
William Slikker, Jr., Ph.D., National Center for Toxicological Research/FDA
Recent technological innovations now make it possible to apply many in vivo neuroimaging technologies such as positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to small animals, including nonhuman primates, rats and mice. Approaches have been delineated that promise the ability to assess apoptosis and gene expression in a longitudinal and noninvasive manner. Changes in anatomy of soft and hard tissue, metabolism, function and gene expression can now be done in both a preclinical and a clinical setting using such technologies as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRSI), Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Computer Tomography Scanning (CT scan) and Visible and Infrared Spectral Imaging. This type of information is not readily accessible using conventional toxicological procedures and usually requires total destruction of the intrinsic structure of the sample of interest. Imaging provides an opportunity to provide much of this data in a nondestructive manner and presents the data in a three-dimensional format. The availability of these new technologies coincides with progress in developing animal models of various developmental and neurodegenerative diseases and improvements in assessment protocols for identifying deficits in animals that correlate well with human deficits. The integration of neuroimaging techniques with traditional neurotoxicological assessments has the potential to enhance greatly the ability to relate behavioral, cognitive or motor dysfunction induced by a toxicant to structural and functional brain pathology.
2004 FDA Science Forum | FDA Chapter, Sigma Xi | CFSAN | FDA
Last updated on 2004-MAY-28 by frf