Imaging the evolution of reactivation pulmonary tuberculosis in mice using 18F-FDG PET.

Unlabelled: Latent tuberculosis infection affects one third of the world's population and can reactivate (relapse) decades later. However, current technologies, dependent on postmortem analyses, cannot follow the temporal evolution of disease.

Methods: C3HeB/FeJ mice, which develop necrotic and hypoxic tuberculosis lesions, were aerosol-infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Noninvasive molecular imaging of tuberculosis-associated inflammation with radioiodinated DPA-713.

Background: Increased expression of translocator protein (TSPO) is a feature of microglial and macrophage activation. Since activated macrophages are key components of tuberculosis-associated inflammation, we evaluated radioiodinated DPA-713, a synthetic ligand of TSPO, for in vivo imaging of host response.

Methods: Mice were infected with aerosolized Mycobacterium tuberculosis and evaluated using whole-body [(125)I]iodo-DPA-713 single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT).