18F-FAPI PET/CT for Early Detection and Severity Assessment of Intestinal Fibrosis in a Mouse Model.

Authors

Weicheng Zhou, Jiantao Ran, Xinyue Hu, Chaoqun Lv, Jianping You, Duo Sun, Leiyue Chen, Yi Tang, Hongqing Li, Daoxi Hu, Kaijun Liu, Dongfeng Chen, Xiao Chen

Published in

Inflammatory bowel diseases. May 09, 2025. Epub May 09, 2025.

Abstract

To investigate the feasibility of using 18F-fibroblast activation protein (FAP) inhibitor positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18F-FAPI PET/CT) to detect intestinal fibrosis in its early stages and identify its severity in a mouse model.
A dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced mouse model of intestinal fibrosis was established. To detect pro-inflammatory cytokines and histopathology, blood and intestinal lesion samples were collected after 18F-FAPI PET/CT scanning (3.7 MBq/mice) at 3, 6, 9, and 12 weeks post-initial exposure to DSS. Correlation and diagnostic efficacy were explored between 18F-FAPI uptake and FAP expression or fibrosis score in early, late, and entire stages of intestinal fibrosis.
18F-FAPI uptake was positively correlated with FAP expression throughout entire stages of intestinal fibrosis (r = 0.90). However, a weak correlation between 18F-FAPI uptake and fibrosis score (r = 0.49), and moderate diagnostic performance of 18F-FAPI PET for fibrotic severity (area under the receiver-operating characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.79) were found throughout the entire stages. Interestingly, in the early stages, 18F-FAPI PET effectively distinguished the degree of intestinal fibrosis (AUC = 0.95), and was strongly correlated with fibrosis score (r = 0.89). In the late stages, the diagnostic efficacy (AUC = 0.46) and correlation (r = -0.20) drastically decreased.
As Crohn's disease (CD) with intestinal fibrosis progresses, 18F-FAPI uptake is high in the early stages and then gradually decreases. Activated fibroblasts appear more frequently in the early stages of intestinal fibrosis indicates that 18F-FAPI PET has a great potential for early identification of intestinal fibrosis and provides new insights into treatment decision-making in CD patients.

PMID:
40349210
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 12 May 2025.

Read full publication at:
Please sign in to see all details.

Stats

1-terrible, 9-excellent. How would you rate this publication? Sign in in to submit your rating.

Post a comment

You need to be signed in to post comments. You can sign in here.

Comments

There are no comments yet.