Abstract
Microscopy and medical imaging are related in their exploitation of electromagnetic waves, but were developed to satisfy differing needs, namely to observe small objects or to look inside subjects/objects, respectively. Together, these techniques can help elucidate complex biological processes and better understand health and disease. A current major challenge is to delineate mechanisms governing cell migration and tissue invasion in organismal development, the immune system and in human diseases such as cancer where the spatiotemporal tracking of small cell numbers in live animal models is extremely challenging.Multi-modal multi-scale in vivo cell tracking integrates medical and optical imaging. Fuelled by basic research in cancer biology and cell-based therapeutics, it has been enabled by technological advances providing enhanced resolution, sensitivity and multiplexing capabilities. Here, we review which imaging modalities have been successfully used for in vivo cell tracking and how this challenging task has benefitted from combining macroscopic with microscopic techniques.
Highlights
Two major discoveries, one enabling observation of smaller objects and the other allowing to look inside subjects/objects, significantly boosted biological/biomedical research
The second transformation was Wilhelm Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895, which enabled investigations of inner subject/object structures in a non-invasive way and founded medical imaging. Both microscopy and medical imaging rely on the interaction of biological matter with electromagnetic waves, but medical imaging employs a wider range than microscopy including α/ β/γ-ray-emitting radioisotopes, X-rays, visible (VIS)/near-infrared (NIR) light, radio waves and ultrasound (Fig. 1)
Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and Cerenkov luminescence imaging (CLI) are special in that they both rely on electromagnetic waves from different parts of the spectrum for imaging
Summary
One enabling observation of smaller objects and the other allowing to look inside subjects/objects, significantly boosted biological/biomedical research. The second transformation was Wilhelm Roentgen’s discovery of X-rays in 1895, which enabled investigations of inner subject/object structures in a non-invasive way (genetic effects of radiation were only recognized later) and founded medical imaging. Both microscopy and medical imaging rely on the interaction of biological matter with electromagnetic waves, but medical imaging employs a wider range than microscopy including α/ β/γ-ray-emitting radioisotopes, X-rays, visible (VIS)/near-infrared (NIR) light, radio waves and ultrasound (Fig. 1). How medical imaging can be used to develop biomarkers providing diagnostic, prognostic, predictive, and treatment monitoring information was recently standardized (O’Connor et al, 2017). For detailed information on the instrumentation of individual imaging technologies and their use, we provide references to recent specialist literature
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