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Open-source versatile 3D-print animal conditioning platform design for in vivo preclinical brain imaging in awake mice and anesthetized mice and rats

Lab Animal volume 53, pages 33–42 (2024)Cite this article

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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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Fig. 1: Animal conditioning platform for multimodal imaging in small animals.
Fig. 2: Animal conditioning and MRI in anesthetized and awake mice and anesthetized rats.
Fig. 3: Multimodal imaging in anesthetized and awake mice.
Fig. 4: Setup and quality controls for fMRI in awake mice.
Fig. 5: fMRI responses in awake mice.

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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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Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Zakia Ben Youss, Tanzil Mahmud Arefin, Omid Yaghmazadeh.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bernard and Irene Schwartz Center for Biomedical Imaging (CBI), Center for Advanced Imaging Innovation and Research (CAI2R), Department of Radiology, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Zakia Ben Youss, Jiangyang Zhang, Youssef Zaim Wadghiri & Leeor Alon

  2. Center for Neurotechnology in Mental Health Research, Department of Biomedical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    Tanzil Mahmud Arefin

  3. Department of Radiology, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, USA

    Sawwal Qayyum

  4. Neuroscience Institute, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Runjie Yi & Omid Yaghmazadeh

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  1. Zakia Ben Youss
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Contributions

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.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Youssef Zaim Wadghiri, Leeor Alon or Omid Yaghmazadeh.

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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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