Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most serious health problems worldwide. Many researchers have investigated HCC at the level of genes, ribonucleic acid, proteins, cells, and animals. The resultant development of animal models and monitoring methods has improved the effectiveness of guidelines provided to researchers working with preclinical HCC models. HCC in animal models and clinical patients is monitored by various current imaging modalities such as ultrasound (US) imaging, computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), positron emission tomography (PET) and bioluminescence imaging (BLI). These techniques are currently used for both preclinical and clinical assessment, and provide valuable diagnostic information. In this article, we have mainly reviewed the established animal models and the assessment of orthotopic HCC using imaging modalities. Additionally, we have introduced a method of orthotopic HCC rat model developed in our laboratory. We have furthermore evaluated the occurrence of tumor mass using molecular imaging techniques.
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Acknowledgments
This study was supported by Radiation Technology R&D programs through the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant (NRFG) funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2012-M2A2A7014020, 2011-0028581).
Conflict of Interest
Tai Kyoung Lee, Kyung Sook Na, Jeonghun Kim and Hwan-Jeong Jeong declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical Statement
This study was approved by the animal ethics committee in our hospital and performed in accordance with the ethical standards laid down in the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments.
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Lee, T.K., Na, K.S., Kim, J. et al. Establishment of Animal Models with Orthotopic Hepatocellular Carcinoma. Nucl Med Mol Imaging 48, 173–179 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-014-0288-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13139-014-0288-y