Endoscopic Cerenkov luminescence imaging and image-guided tumor resection on hepatocellular carcinoma-bearing mouse models

摘要： Detecting deep tumors inside living subject is still challenging for Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI). In this study, a high-sensitivity endoscopic CLI (ECLI) system was developed with a dual-mode deep cooling approach to improve the imaging sensitivity. System was characterized through a series of ex vivo studies. Furthermore, subcutaneous and orthotropic human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mouse models were established for ECLI guided tumor resection in vivo. The results showed that the ECLI system had spatial resolution (62.5 μm) and imaging sensitivity (6.29×10-2 kBq/μl 18F-FDG). While the results from both subcutaneous and orthotropic HCC mouse models demonstrate the effectiveness of the system to intraoperatively guide the surgery of deep tumors such as liver cancer. Overall, the developed system exhibits promising potential for the applications of tumor precise resection and novel nanoprobe based optical imaging.