ABSTRACT

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a research field of high interest as the implementation of new imaging modalities can significantly improve clinical diagnosis of several human pathologies. Awake nonhuman animals in the laboratory are being used in MRI pre-clinical systems for the validation of new imaging techniques, but animal welfare concerns emerge as MRI pulse sequences produce extremely loud sounds, up to 120 dB. Consequently, it is unclear how stressful these sounds are to the animals. Here, the impact of these sounds in the rodent behavior and physiology was evaluated. To achieve this, C57BL6/J mice were divided into two groups: a group exposed to sounds of typical pulse sequences used in imaging and a control group that was not exposed to those sounds. Mice have been tested in the open field and elevated plus maze to monitor baseline behavior and a hormonal stress biomarker was assayed to assess acute stress. The results indicate that the pulse sequences used in MRI are transient stressors that overall do not impact the behavioral status of the animals.

摘要

磁共振成像 (MRI) 是一个备受关注的研究领域，因为新的成像方式的实施可以显着改善几种人类病理的临床诊断。实验室中清醒的非人类动物正被用于 MRI 临床前系统，以验证新的成像技术，但随着 MRI 脉冲序列产生高达 120 dB 的极其响亮的声音，动物福利问题出现了。因此，尚不清楚这些声音对动物的压力有多大。在这里，评估了这些声音对啮齿动物行为和生理的影响。为了实现这一点，C57BL6/J 小鼠被分为两组：一组暴露于成像中使用的典型脉冲序列的声音中，另一组未暴露于这些声音中。小鼠已在旷野和高架十字迷宫中进行测试，以监测基线行为，并测定激素应激生物标志物以评估急性应激。结果表明，MRI 中使用的脉冲序列是短暂的压力源，总体上不会影响动物的行为状态。