Imaging inflammation - benefits and challenges

Various imaging modalities visualizing inflammation can improve our understanding of the pathophysiology underlying various disease etiologies, including e.g. autoimmune diseases, -degenerative diseases and diabetes. While the ultimate goal may be to generate clinical noninvasive in vivo imaging of inflammation that will aid in diagnosis, prognosis, and response to therapeutic strategies, it will also aid in deciphering the involvement of the immune system in disease pathophysiology and quantify the course of a disease. We have established and applied a combination of imaging platforms to investigate the natural development of inflammation associated with diabetes and non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and will discuss benefits and challenges met in this work.