The Positron Emission Tomography Tracer 3’-Deoxy-3’-[18F]Fluorothymidine ([18F]FLT) Is Not Suitable to Detect Tissue Proliferation Induced by Systemic Yersinia enterocolitica Infection in Mice

Most frequently, gram-negative bacterial infections in humans are caused by Enterobacteriaceae and remain a major challenge in medical diagnostics. We non-invasively imaged moderate and severe systemic Yersinia enterocolitica infections in mice using the positron emission tomography (PET) tracer 3'-deoxy-3'-[18F]fluorothymidine ([18F]FLT), which is a marker of proliferation, and compared the in vivo results to the ex vivo biodistributions, bacterial loads, and histologies of the corresponding organs. Y. enterocolitica infection is detectable with histology using H&E staining and immunohistochemistry for Ki 67. [18F]FLT revealed only background uptake in the spleen, which is the main manifestation site of systemic Y. enterocolitica-infected mice. The uptake was independent of the infection dose. Antibody-based thymidine kinase 1 (Tk-1) staining confirmed the negative [18F]FLT-PET data. Histological alterations of spleen tissue, observed via Ki 67-antibody-based staining, can not be detected by [18F]FLT-PET in this model. Thus, the proliferation marker [18F]FLT is not a suitable tracer for the diagnosis of systemic Y. enterocolitica infection in the C57BL/6 animal model of yersiniosis.