Non-invasively differentiate non-alcoholic steatohepatitis by visualizing hepatic integrin αvβ3 expression with a targeted molecular imaging modality

Figure 5 Imaging non-alcoholic fatty liver disease using a magnetic resonance imaging modality with cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid peptides labeled with gadolinium through 1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid as a tracer in mice. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease was induced in mice by high-fat high-carbohydrate diet (HFCD) for 2, 4, and 6 months (referred to as HFCD-2M, 4M and 6M), and mice fed with regular diet for 6 months served as the control group (n= 3 per group). A: Representative micrographs of hepatic histology stained with hematoxylin-eosin staining (200 ×), Masson (100 ×), and Oil-red O (200 ×), scale bars = 50 μm; B: Representative hepatic T1-weighed magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the control and HFCD-6M mice prior to and at 30, 60, 90 and 120 minutes after cyclic arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (cRGD)-1,4,7,10-tetraazacyclododecane-1,4,7,10-tetraacetic acid (DOTA)-gadolinium (Gd) injection; C: Comparison of the relative liver MRI-T1 signal value in the control and HFCD-fed mice 60 minutes after cRGD-DOTA-Gd injection. Data are expressed in means ± SD; D: Correlation of the relative liver MRI-T1 signal value at 60 minutes post-injection of cRGD-DOTA-Gd with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease activity score was assessed. HE: Hematoxylin-eosin staining; CTRL: Normal control group; M: Month; NS: Not significant; NAFLD: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease; HFCD: High-fat high-carbohydrate diet; MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.