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Usefulness of 11C-Choline Positron Emission Tomography for Genital Chlamydial Infection Assessment in a Balb/c Murine Model

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this study is to explore the feasibility of 11C-Choline PET in the assessment of the degree of inflammation in the Chlamydia muridarum genital infection model.

Procedures

Forty female Balb/c mice received 2.5 mg of medroxyprogesterone acetate i.m. 9 and 2 days prior to the infection: 21 mice were infected by C. muridarum into the vaginal vault, 12 mice were treated with inactivated chlamydiae, and 7 mice were SPG buffer-treated as negative controls. Three healthy control mice were not treated with progesterone. Mice in each category were randomly subdivided in two groups: (1) sacrificed at 5, 10, 15, and 20 days for histological analysis and (2) undergoing 11C-Choline PET at days 5, 10, and 20 post-infection (20 MBq of 11C-Choline, uptake time of 10 min, acquisition through a small-animal PET tomograph for 15 min).

Results

Infected animals showed a significantly higher standardized uptake value than both controls and animals inoculated with heat-inactivated chlamydiae in each PET scan (P < 0.05). All organs of the infected animals had scores of inflammation ranging between 2 and 3 at day 5, decreasing to 1–2 at day 20.

Conclusions

This preliminary result demonstrated that 11C-Choline PET can highlight a specific proliferation mechanism of inflammatory cells induced by C. muridarum, thanks to a very high sensitivity in detecting very small amounts of tracer in inflammatory cells.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microbiology, DIMES Department, S. Orsola Hospital, University of Bologna, Via Massarenti, 9, 40138, Bologna, Italy

    Antonella Marangoni, Claudio Foschi, Incoronata Russo, Paola Nardini & Roberto Cevenini

  2. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Bologna Policlinico S.Orsola-Malpighi, Bologna, Italy

    Cristina Nanni & Carmelo Quarta

  3. DIMES Department, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Antonietta D’Errico & Francesca Rosini

  4. Medical Physics, Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Rovigo, Italy

    Alice Ferretti

  5. FaBit Department, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Rita Aldini

  6. Department of Nuclear Medicine, Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital, Via Tre Martiri 140, 45100, Rovigo, Italy

    Domenico Rubello

Authors
  1. Antonella Marangoni
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  2. Cristina Nanni
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  3. Carmelo Quarta
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  4. Claudio Foschi
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  7. Antonietta D’Errico
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  8. Francesca Rosini
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  9. Alice Ferretti
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  10. Rita Aldini
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  11. Roberto Cevenini
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Antonella Marangoni.

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Marangoni, A., Nanni, C., Quarta, C. et al. Usefulness of 11C-Choline Positron Emission Tomography for Genital Chlamydial Infection Assessment in a Balb/c Murine Model. Mol Imaging Biol 15, 450–455 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-013-0612-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-013-0612-4

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