Biomedical application of high sensitive synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques to assess the microstructures and function of hamster heart

High sensitive synchrotron X-ray imaging techniques such as phase-contrast X-ray computed tomography with an X-ray interferometer (p-CT) and fluorescent X-ray computer tomography (FXCT) have been developed for biomedical researches. In this study, formalin fixed cardiac specimens of normal and cardiomyopathy hamsters were imaged to examine the feasibility of these imaging techniques. P-CT revealed the detailed morphological structures of heart such as myocardial density change, wall thickness and ventricular cavity, whereas FXCT demonstrated myocardial fatty acid metabolic impairment by using non-radioactive 1-127 labeled BMIPP. Even in younger 8-weeks-old cardiomyopathic hamster, the metabolic impairment was clearly revealed. Myocardial density and BMIPP uptake was analyzed quantitatively. Our results suggest these techniques have high sensitivity in density change and spatial resolution, and they are quite useful for myocardial biomedical research in small animals.