Analysis of small animal X-Ray tomographic imaging : application for phenotypical analysis in mice ex vivo and in vivo
Small animal imaging is highly necessary for the development of biomedical research and pharmaceuticalapplications. Amongst various available imaging methods, X-Ray tomography is now considered as a goldstandard for anatomical and phenotypical analysis in mice. CT imaging allows non invasive longitudinal studiesin vivo and high resolution analysis ex vivo. The 3D image analysis requires the development of specific toolsdepending on the biomedical problematics.In this context, we have investigated the following research areas :1. Development of 3D image tools for qualitative and quantitative image analysis of mineralized andadipose tissues in murin models2. Application of our tools to biomedical investigations3. Comparative and multi-scale analysis of various tomography technologies for small animal imaging4. Development of an original method using Electronic Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) for X-ray dosimetryin miceIn conclusion, our 3D imaging methods are potentially of high interest for the virtual dissection of laboratoryanimals, allowing extended analysis of various tissues and organs complementary to standard histological andmicroscopic approaches.