Silver nanoplates are introduced as a new photoacoustic contrast agent that can be easily functionalized for molecular photoacoustic imaging in vivo. Methods are described for synthesis, functionalization, and stabilization of silver nanoplates using …

Mouse models of human disease are increasingly used to study the nature of cardiovascular diseases such as atherosclerosis. The pulse wave velocity (PWV) provides an indirect measure of arterial stiffness and can be useful for characterizing disease …

The history of developmental and genetic analysis in the mouse has made it the model of choice for studying mammalian embryogenesis. Presently lacking is a simple technique for efficiently analyzing early mouse mutant phenotypes in utero. We demonstrate …

Cardiac troponin I (TnI) knockout mice exhibit a phenotype of sudden death at 17-18 days after birth due to a progressive loss of TnI. The objective of this study was to gain insight into the physiological consequences of TnI depletion and the cause of …

The ability to form anastomoses with the host circulation is essential for vascular networks incorporated within cell-seeded bioengineered tissues. Here, we tested whether and how rapidly human endothelial colony forming cell (ECFC)/mesenchymal progenitor …

PURPOSE: To determine whether optical imaging can be used for in vivo therapy response monitoring as an alternative to radionuclide techniques. For this, we evaluated the known Her2 response to 17-dimethylaminoethylamino-17-demethoxygeldanamycin …

Dyssynchronous myocardial motion aggravates cardiac pump function. Cardiac resynchronization using pacing devices is a standard-of-care in the management of heart failure. Post-infarction, however, scar tissue formation impedes the efficacy of …

Growing tumors are hypoxic and respond to microenvironmental stress through increased expression of the hypoxia inducible factor-1alpha (HIF-1alpha) transcription factor, resulting in an adaptive switch to glycolytic metabolism, angiogenic signaling, …

Early therapeutic efficacy of anti-death receptor 5 antibody (TRA-8) combined with gemcitabine was measured using diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) in an orthotopic pancreatic tumor model. Groups 1 to 4 of severe combined immunodeficient …

Recent evidence suggests that blockade of aberrant Hedgehog signaling can be exploited as a therapeutic strategy for pancreatic cancer. Our previous studies using the prototype Hedgehog small-molecule antagonist cyclopamine had shown the striking …