Digimouse: a 3D whole body mouse atlas from CT and cryosection data

We have constructed a three-dimensional (3D) whole body mouse atlas from coregistered x-ray CT and cryosection data of a normal nude male mouse. High quality PET, x-ray CT and cryosection images were acquired post mortem from a single mouse placed in a stereotactic frame with fiducial markers visible in all three modalities. The image data were coregistered to a common coordinate system using the fiducials and resampled to an isotropic 0.1 mm voxel size. Using interactive editing tools we segmented and labelled whole brain, cerebrum, cerebellum, olfactory bulbs, striatum, medulla, masseter muscles, eyes, lachrymal glands, heart, lungs, liver, stomach, spleen, pancreas, adrenal glands, kidneys, testes, bladder, skeleton and skin surface. The final atlas consists of the 3D volume, in which the voxels are labelled to define the anatomical structures listed above, with coregistered PET, x-ray CT and cryosection images. To illustrate use of the atlas we include simulations of 3D bioluminescence and PET image reconstruction. Optical scatter and absorption values are assigned to each organ to simulate realistic photon transport within the animal for bioluminescence imaging. Similarly, 511 keV photon attenuation values are assigned to each structure in the atlas to simulate realistic photon attenuation in PET. The Digimouse atlas and data are available at http://neuroimage.usc.edu/Digimouse.html.