SKELETAL UPTAKE OF PYROPHOSPHATE LABELED WITH TECHNETIUM-95M AND TECHNETIUM-96, AS EVALUATED BY AUTORADIOGRAPHY

  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 19  (8) , 895-899
Abstract
For animal experimentation, the 95mTc and 96Tc isotopes offer many advantages over 99mTc. Their long physical half-lives and the emission of extranuclear electrons of low penetrating power make it possible to obtain autoradiograms of a great precision. The uptake of technetium stannous pyrophosphate by the epiphyseal plate was studied using liquid-emulsion microautoradiography, 3 h after i.v. injection into 10 wk old rabbits. Microautoradiograms showed a well-defined and rather specific pattern of localization, with intense uptake beneath the epiphyseal disk on the extremities of the vascular buds and a lack of accumulation in the cartilage, whether calcified or uncalcified. In the metaphysis, the label was located where new bone was being laid down and also over the cytoplasm of osteoclasts. In normal bone the general distribution of this tracer reflects mainly the arrangement of the blood supply, but the specific sites of accumulation are the bone-forming surfaces and the active resorbing osteoclasts.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: