The Imaging Core of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research Institute (LRI) and a group of ten NIH-funded investigators request funds to purchase a small animal ultrasound imaging system ? specifically the VisualSonics Vevo 2100. The Imaging Core was established nineteen years ago to provide leading-edge imaging equipment and expertise for the Cleveland Clinic research community. Three years ago, the Core adopted a 9-year-old Vevo 770 from an investigator who left the LRI. Since it became available to a larger number of LRI investigators it has been used by members in the department of Molecular Cardiology and Cellular and Molecular medicine. This instrument has served our researchers well, but it is technologically inadequate for current research needs. As investigators translate their molecular discoveries into in vivo mouse models, we have come to realize the incapability of the current ultrasound imaging system to link phenotypic characterization to mechanistic alterations of pathways. The requested imaging system will allow us to interrogate cardiac function, tumor growth and aortic aneurysms. Acquisition of a Vevo 2100 will allow for significant insights into cardiac function including assessment of abnormalities of wall motion and the use of color Doppler to measure blood volume, flow and velocity. Its ability to measure capillary density following myocardial infarction will enable our investigators to discern mechanistic links in novel genetically altered mice. Furthermore, the capability to calculate the cardiac stress-strain relationship and its effect on cardiac output in mouse models of heart failure will provide important information regarding molecular signaling mechanisms that could potentially affect the structural component of the contractility system. Finally, unique contrast imaging capabilities will be utilized by investigators to assess tumor growth and abdominal aortic aneurysms. Therefore, the Vevo 2100 with its high resolution ultrasound imaging will allow investigators from diverse areas of research to capitalize on its capabilities to accelerate their basic discoveries into novel therapeutic targets or agents. Placing the system in the Imaging Core will not only maximize its benefits for a variety of health-related investigations, but will assure its management by a skilled staff. Dr. Judith Drazba, LRI Imaging Core Director and Co-PI has over thirty years of experience in biomedical imaging, nineteen of them running this facility. Dr. Sathyamangla Prasad, PI on this grant, has more than seventeen years of intensive experience in small animal surgery and imaging. He has significant technical and scientific experience using the Vevo 770. Other members of the Imaging Core staff will also assist with user services, training, and equipment troubleshooting and maintenance. Finally, the Lerner Research Institute which has a long history of strong support for centralized facilities continues its commitment to the Imaging Core by providing funds for salary support, service contracts, and infrastructure.
Use of the small animal ultrasound imaging system proposed in this grant will open up to researchers an enhanced way of studying disease progression and treatment in an intact, living animal. This is a necessary step for moving discoveries made in the laboratory into treatments and drugs that will be used for patients. The ability to measure, for example, heart function or blood flow in a tumor over weeks or months in a live animal allows for a much more realistic understanding of how a biologic process or treatment works. With the knowledge obtained from the use of this instrument, our investigators hope to be able to translate laboratory experiments into clinical treatments for conditions such as cardiovascular disease and cancer pathology.
