Abstract
Proper animal conditioning is a key factor in the quality and success of preclinical neuroimaging applications. Here, we introduce an open-source easy-to-modify multimodal 3D printable design for rodent conditioning for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or other imaging modalities. Our design can be used for brain imaging in anesthetized or awake mice, and in anesthetized rats. We show ease of use and reproducibility of subject conditioning with anatomical T2-weighted imaging for both mice and rats. We also demonstrate the application of our design for awake functional MRI in mice using both visual evoked potential and olfactory stimulation paradigms. In addition, using a combined MRI, positron emission tomography and X-ray computed tomography experiment, we demonstrate that our proposed cradle design can be utilized for multiple imaging modalities.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
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Acknowledgements
We thank M. Vöröslakos whose designs have been an inspiring source for some of the elements in the presented study. We thank members of the Buzsáki lab (buzsakilab.com), and labs of J.Z., Y.Z.W. and L.A. and the team of the preclinical imaging core at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine for their help and feedback on different aspects during the evolution of this work. This work was supported by NIH grant no. 1R01NS113782-01A1 and TL1 postdoctoral fellowship no. 2TL1TR001447-06A1 to O.Y. All the imaging experiments were performed at the NYU Langone Health Preclinical Imaging Laboratory, supported by the NIH/SIG no. 1S10OD018337-01, the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center Support Grant no. NIH/NCI 5P30CA016087, and the NIBIB Biomedical Technology Resource Center Grant NIH no. P41 EB017183 as well as the NYU CTSA grant no. UL1 TR000038 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, NIH.
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O.Y. and L.A. conceived the project, and O.Y. coordinated its execution. O.Y. designed the platform with input from Z.B.Y., L.A., S.Q. and Y.Z.W. O.Y., Z.B.Y., T.M.A., L.A., Y.Z.W. and J.Z. designed the experiments. O.Y., Z.B.Y., T.M.A. and R.Y. performed the experiments and analyzed the data. O.Y., Z.B.Y., T.M.A. and L.A. wrote the paper, and all authors participated in its revision.
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Lab Animal thanks Petteri Stenroos and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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Ben Youss, Z., Arefin, T.M., Qayyum, S. et al. Open-source versatile 3D-print animal conditioning platform design for in vivo preclinical brain imaging in awake mice and anesthetized mice and rats. Lab Anim 53, 33–42 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-023-01320-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41684-023-01320-z