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PET/SPECT imaging of hindlimb ischemia: focusing on angiogenesis and blood flow

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Abstract

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a result of the atherosclerotic narrowing of blood vessels to the extremities, and the subsequent tissue ischemia can lead to the up-regulation of angiogenic growth factors and formation of new vessels as a recovery mechanism. Such formation of new vessels can be evaluated with various non-invasive molecular imaging techniques, where serial images from the same subjects can be obtained to allow the documentation of disease progression and therapeutic response. The most commonly used animal model for preclinical studies of PAD is the murine hindlimb ischemia model, and a number of radiotracers have been investigated for positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging of PAD. In this review article, we summarize the PET/SPECT tracers that have been tested in the murine hindlimb ischemia model as well as those used clinically to assess the extremity blood flow.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge financial support from the University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, the Department of Defense (W81XWH-11-1-0644), and the Elsa U. Pardee Foundation.

Conflict of interest

The authors have declared that no competing interest exists.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Radiology, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1111 Highland Ave, Room 7137, Madison, WI, 53705-2275, USA

    Hakan Orbay, Hao Hong & Weibo Cai

  2. Department of Medical Physics, School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1111 Highland Ave, Room 7137, Madison, WI, 53705-2275, USA

    Yin Zhang & Weibo Cai

  3. University of Wisconsin Carbone Cancer Center, Madison, WI, USA

    Weibo Cai

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  1. Hakan Orbay
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  2. Hao Hong
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Correspondence to Weibo Cai.

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Orbay, H., Hong, H., Zhang, Y. et al. PET/SPECT imaging of hindlimb ischemia: focusing on angiogenesis and blood flow. Angiogenesis 16, 279–287 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10456-012-9319-4

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