Preclinical PET and SPECT Imaging in Small Animals: Technologies, Challenges and Translational Impact

Abstract

Highlights: What are the main findings? Advances in PET and SPECT technology significantly improved spatial resolution, sensitivity and quantitative accuracy in small-animal imaging. Experimental conditions and QC procedures critically affect data reliability and reproducibility in preclinical molecular imaging. What are the implications of the main findings? Enhanced imaging performance increases the translational value of animal models by enabling more precise assessment of biological processes relevant to human disease. Technological progress in multimodal and hybrid systems expands the scope of preclinical research, allowing comprehensive functional–anatomical assessment within a single imaging workflow. Molecular imaging in preclinical research using PET and SPECT has become a key component of contemporary biomedicine, enabling noninvasive, quantitative, and longitudinal assessment of biological processes in vivo. Rapid technological progress, including advances in detector design, readout electronics, reconstruction algorithms, and multimodal integration, has substantially improved spatial resolution, sensitivity, and quantitative accuracy, thereby enhancing the translational value of animal models. PET and SPECT enable precise characterization of metabolic, molecular, and functional alterations across a wide range of diseases including cancer, cardiovascular disorders, neurodegeneration, and inflammation. Radiopharmaceuticals targeting diverse biological pathways, combined with PET and SPECT systems, allow comprehensive and physiologically relevant evaluation of disease mechanisms and therapeutic responses. Despite these significant advances, important challenges remain, including limitations in quantitative precision, partial-volume effects and inter-laboratory variability in experimental protocols. An additional limitation is the lack of globally standardized quality-control and calibration procedures tailored to preclinical imaging systems. Emerging multimodal imaging platforms and high-fidelity disease models, such as genetically engineered rodents, large animals, and zebrafish, continue to enhance reproducibility, biological relevance, and translational potential. This review summarizes the development, capabilities, and limitations of preclinical PET and SPECT imaging, highlighting their expanding role in advancing molecular diagnostics, radiopharmaceutical development, and translational medicine in both preclinical studies and early-phase clinical research.