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Copyright ©The Author(s) 2016. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jan 21, 2016; 22(3): 996-1007
Published online Jan 21, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i3.996
Diagnostic imaging advances in murine models of colitis
Markus Brückner, Philipp Lenz, Marcus M Mücke, Faekah Gohar, Peter Willeke, Dirk Domagk, Dominik Bettenworth
Markus Brückner, Philipp Lenz, Marcus M Mücke, Dominik Bettenworth, Department of Medicine B, University Hospital of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, D-48149 Münster, Germany
Faekah Gohar, Department of Paediatric Rheumatology and Immunology, University Hospital of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, D-48149 Münster, Germany
Peter Willeke, Department of Medicine D, University Hospital of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, D-48149 Münster, Germany
Dirk Domagk, Department of Medicine I, Josephs-Hospital Warendorf, Academic Teaching Hospital, University of Münster, Am Krankenhaus 2, D-48231 Warendorf, Germany
Author contributions: Brückner M and Lenz P contributed equally to this work; Brückner M, Lenz P and Bettenworth D contributed to the article design, literature search, manuscript writing and final revision of the article; Mücke MM, Gohar F, Willeke P and Domagk D contributed to manuscript writing and final revision of the article; and Gohar F proofread the final revision.
Supported by The European Union Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP 7) grant EUTRAIN (European Translational Training for Autoimmunity and Immune Manipulation Network, No. 289903 to Gohar F.
Conflict-of-interest statement: No author has any competing commercial, personal, political, intellectual, or religious interests in relation to the submitted work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Markus Brückner, MD, Department of Medicine B, University Hospital of Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, D-48149 Münster, Germany. markus.brueckner@ukmuenster.de
Telephone: +49-251-8347661 Fax: +49-251-8347570
Received: April 29, 2015
Peer-review started: May 12, 2015
First decision: August 26, 2015
Revised: September 9, 2015
Accepted: November 13, 2015
Article in press: November 13, 2015
Published online: January 21, 2016
Abstract

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis are chronic-remittent inflammatory disorders of the gastrointestinal tract still evoking challenging clinical diagnostic and therapeutic situations. Murine models of experimental colitis are a vital component of research into human IBD concerning questions of its complex pathogenesis or the evaluation of potential new drugs. To monitor the course of colitis, to the present day, classical parameters like histological tissue alterations or analysis of mucosal cytokine/chemokine expression often require euthanasia of animals. Recent advances mean revolutionary non-invasive imaging techniques for in vivo murine colitis diagnostics are increasingly available. These novel and emerging imaging techniques not only allow direct visualization of intestinal inflammation, but also enable molecular imaging and targeting of specific alterations of the inflamed murine mucosa. For the first time, in vivo imaging techniques allow for longitudinal examinations and evaluation of intra-individual therapeutic response. This review discusses the latest developments in the different fields of ultrasound, molecularly targeted contrast agent ultrasound, fluorescence endoscopy, confocal laser endomicroscopy as well as tomographic imaging with magnetic resonance imaging, computed tomography and fluorescence-mediated tomography, discussing their individual limitations and potential future diagnostic applications in the management of human patients with IBD.

Keywords: Confocal laser endomicroscopy, Contrast enhanced ultrasound, Dextran Sodium Sulphate colitis, Experimental colitis, Fluorescence imaging, Endoscopy, Imaging, Inflammatory bowel disease, Tomography

Core tip: Murine models of experimental colitis are a vital component of research into human inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Recent advances mean revolutionary non-invasive imaging techniques for in vivo murine colitis diagnostics are increasingly available. These techniques not only allow direct visualization of intestinal inflammation and enable molecular imaging of the inflamed mucosa but also allow for longitudinal evaluation of intra-individual therapeutic response. This review discusses the latest developments in the different fields of (molecularly targeted) contrast agent ultrasound, fluorescence endoscopy, confocal laser endomicroscopy as well as tomographic imaging with fluorescence-mediated tomography, discussing their potential future diagnostic applications in human IBD.