Las imágenes moleculares y las micro imágenes. Nuevos retos a la bioingeniería

Abstract

The Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) allows the "non invasive" study of the biological nature with high contrast and great temporal and spatial resolution. It is sum-marized the state of art of the Micro Magnetic Resonance Imaging (μMR) and Molecular Magnetic Resonance Imaging (mMRI). These new ideas are transforming the investigations and applications on the Biotechnology, the bioengineering and medic-pharmaceutical industries. The MRI methods and techniques developed on animals are transferable to human being and vice verse. They accelerate, and lower the price, of preclinical and clinical trials. It is described the use of endogenous and exogenous contrast mechanisms. It is concluded that the mMRI and μMR are able to detect, quantify and visualize dynamic molecular and cellular phenomena on tissues and organs, with spatial resolutions of up to tens of microns and the temporal resolution is in order of milliseconds. The development of equipments, devices, methodologies and contrast mechanisms is taking place so as to increase the productivity, specificity, reliability and researches impact. In the near future the implementation of images on investigations will be ineludibly for the design, development and validation of new drugs. © 2013 Springer.