Development and optimization of a high-throughput micro-computed tomography imaging method incorporating a novel analysis technique to evaluate bone mineral density of arthritic joints in a rodent model of collagen induced arthritis.

Abstract

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease resulting in joint inflammation, pain, and eventual bone loss. Bone loss and remodeling caused by symmetric polyarthritis, the hallmark of RA, is readily detectable by bone mineral density (BMD) measurement using micro-CT. Abnormalities in these measurements over time reflect the underlying pathophysiology of the bone. To evaluate the efficacy of anti-rheumatic agents in animal models of arthritis, we developed a high throughput knee and ankle joint imaging assay to measure BMD as a translational biomarker. A bone sample holder was custom designed for micro-CT scanning, which significantly increased assay throughput. Batch processing 3-dimensional image reconstruction, followed by automated image cropping, significantly reduced image processing time. In addition, we developed a novel, automated image analysis method to measure BMD and bone volume of knee and ankle joints. These improvements significantly increased the throughput of ex vivo bone sample analysis, reducing data turnaround from 5 days to 24 hours for a study with 200 rat hind limbs. Taken together, our data demonstrate that BMD, as quantified by micro-CT, is a robust efficacy biomarker with a high degree of sensitivity. Our innovative approach toward evaluation of BMD using optimized image acquisition and novel image processing techniques in preclinical models of RA enables high throughput assessment of anti-rheumatic agents offering a powerful tool for drug discovery.

• Authors: Raquel S Sevilla, Francisco Cruz, Chi-Sung Chiu, Dahai Xue, Kimberly A Bettano, Joe Zhu, Kalyan Chakravarthy, Robert Faltus, Shubing Wang, Amy Vanko, Gain Robinson, Mark Zielstorff, John Miao, Erica Leccese, Donald Conway, Lily Y Moy, Belma Dogdas, Milenko Cicmil, Weisheng Zhang
• Journal: Bone (Bone) Vol. 73 Pg. 32-41 (Apr 2015) ISSN: 1873-2763 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 25482211 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Collagen

Topics

• Animals
• Arthritis, Rheumatoid (diagnostic imaging, drug therapy, pathology, prevention & control)
• Bone Density
• Collagen (administration & dosage)
• Disease Models, Animal
• Female
• Rats
• Rats, Inbred Lew
• X-Ray Microtomography (methods)