A method to image brain tissue frozen at autopsy.

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) can provide the location and signal characteristics of pathological regions within a postmortem tissue block, thereby improving the efficiency of histopathological studies. However, such postmortem-MRI guided histopathological studies have so far only been performed on fixed samples as imaging tissue frozen at the time of extraction, while preserving its integrity, is significantly more challenging. Here we describe the development of cold-postmortem-MRI, which can preserve tissue integrity and help target techniques such as transcriptomics. As a first step, RNA integrity number (RIN) was used to determine the rate of tissue biomolecular degradation in mouse brains placed at various temperatures between -20 °C and +20 °C for up to 24 h. Then, human tissue frozen at the time of autopsy was immersed in 2-methylbutane, sealed in a bio-safe tissue chamber, and cooled in the MRI using a recirculating chiller to determine MRI signal characteristics. The optimal imaging temperature, which did not show significant RIN deterioration for over 12 h, at the same time giving robust MRI signal and contrast between brain tissue types was deemed to be -7 °C. Finally, MRI was performed on human tissue blocks at this optimal imaging temperatures using a magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (MPRAGE, isotropic resolution between 0.3-0.4 mm) revealing good gray-white matter contrast and revealing subpial, subcortical, and deep white matter lesions. RINs measured before and after imaging revealed no significant changes (n = 3, p = 0.18, paired t-test). In addition to improving efficiency of downstream processes, imaging tissue at sub-zero temperatures may also improve our understanding of compartment specificity of MRI signal.

In vivo Metabolic Sensing of Hyperpolarized [1-13C]Pyruvate in Mice Using a Recyclable Perfluorinated Iridium Signal Amplification by Reversible Exchange Catalyst.

Real-time visualization of metabolic processes in vivo provides crucial insights into conditions like cancer and metabolic disorders. Metabolic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), by amplifying the signal of pyruvate molecules through hyperpolarization, enables non-invasive monitoring of metabolic fluxes, aiding in understanding disease progression and treatment response. Signal Amplification By Reversible Exchange (SABRE) presents a simpler, cost-effective alternative to dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization, eliminating the need for expensive equipment and complex procedures. We present the first in vivo demonstration of metabolic sensing in a human pancreatic cancer xenograft model compared to healthy mice. A novel perfluorinated Iridium SABRE catalyst in a fluorinated solvent and methanol blend facilitated this breakthrough with a 1.2-fold increase in [1-13C]pyruvate SABRE hyperpolarization. The perfluorinated moiety allowed easy separation of the heavy-metal-containing catalyst from the hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate target. The perfluorinated catalyst exhibited recyclability, maintaining SABRE-SHEATH activity through subsequent hyperpolarization cycles with minimal activity loss after the initial two cycles. Remarkably, the catalyst retained activity for at least 10 cycles, with a 3.3-fold decrease in hyperpolarization potency. This proof-of-concept study encourages wider adoption of SABRE hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate MR for studying in vivo metabolism, aiding in diagnosing stages and monitoring treatment responses in cancer and other diseases.

Postmortem MRI of Tissue Frozen at Autopsy.

Introduction: Postmortem MRI provides insight into location of pathology within tissue blocks, enabling efficient targeting of histopathological studies. While postmortem imaging of fixed tissue is gaining popularity, imaging tissue frozen at the time of extraction is significantly more challenging. Methods: Tissue integrity was examined using RNA integrity number (RIN), in mouse brains placed between -20 °C and 20 °C for up to 24 hours, to determine the highest temperature that could potentially be used for imaging without tissue degeneration. Human tissue frozen at the time of autopsy was sealed in a tissue chamber filled with 2-methylbutane to prevent contamination of the MRI components. The tissue was cooled to a range of temperatures in a 9.4T MRI using a recirculating aqueous ethylene glycol solution. MRI was performed using a magnetization-prepared rapid gradient echo (MPRAGE) sequence with inversion time of 1400 ms to null the signal from 2-methylbutane bath, isotropic resolution between 0.3-0.4 mm, and scan time of about 4 hours was used to study the anatomical details of the tissue block. Results and Discussion: A temperature of -7 °C was chosen for imaging as it was below the highest temperature that did not show significant RIN deterioration for over 12 hours, at the same time gave robust imaging signal and contrast between brain tissue types. Imaging performed on various human tissue blocks revealed good gray-white matter contrast and revealing subpial, subcortical, and deep white matter lesions typical of multiple sclerosis enabling further spatially targeted studies. Conclusion: Here, we describe a new method to image cold tissue, while maintaining tissue integrity and biosafety during scanning. In addition to improving efficiency of downstream processes, imaging tissue at sub-zero temperatures may also improve our understanding of compartment specificity of MRI signal.

Perfluorinated Iridium Catalyst for Signal Amplification by Reversible Exchange Provides Metal-Free Aqueous Hyperpolarized [1-13C]-Pyruvate.

Hyperpolarized (HP) carbon-13 [13C] enables the specific investigation of dynamic metabolic and physiologic processes via in vivo MRI-based molecular imaging. As the leading HP metabolic agent, [1-13C]pyruvate plays a pivotal role due to its rapid tissue uptake and central role in cellular energetics. Dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (d-DNP) is considered the gold standard method for the production of HP metabolic probes; however, development of a faster, less expensive technique could accelerate the translation of metabolic imaging via HP MRI to routine clinical use. Signal Amplification by Reversible Exchange in SHield Enabled Alignment Transfer (SABRE-SHEATH) achieves rapid hyperpolarization by using parahydrogen (p-H2) as the source of nuclear spin order. Currently, SABRE is clinically limited due to the toxicity of the iridium catalyst, which is crucial to the SABRE process. To mitigate Ir contamination, we introduce a novel iteration of the SABRE catalyst, incorporating bis(polyfluoroalkylated) imidazolium salts. This novel perfluorinated SABRE catalyst retained polarization properties while exhibiting an enhanced hydrophobicity. This modification allows the easy removal of the perfluorinated SABRE catalyst from HP [1-13C]-pyruvate after polarization in an aqueous solution, using the ReD-SABRE protocol. The residual Ir content after removal was measured via ICP-MS at 177 ppb, which is the lowest reported to date for pyruvate and is sufficiently safe for use in clinical investigations. Further improvement is anticipated once automated processes for delivery and recovery are initiated. SABRE-SHEATH using the perfluorinated SABRE catalyst can become an attractive low-cost alternative to d-DNP to prepare biocompatible HP [1-13C]-pyruvate formulations for in vivo applications in next-generation molecular imaging modalities.

Laminar differences in functional oxygen metabolism in monkey visual cortex measured with calibrated fMRI.

Blood-oxygenation-level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) of cortical layers relies on the hemodynamic response and is biased toward large veins on the cortical surface. Functional changes in the cerebral metabolic rate of oxygen (ΔCMRO2) may reflect neural cortical function better than BOLD fMRI, but it is unknown whether the calibrated BOLD model for functional CMRO2 measurement remains valid at high resolution. Here, we measure laminar ΔCMRO2 elicited by visual stimulation in macaque primary visual cortex (V1) and find that ΔCMRO2 peaks in the middle of the cortex, in agreement with autoradiographic measures of metabolism. ΔCMRO2 values in gray matter are similar as found previously. Reductions in CMRO2 are associated with veins at the cortical surface, suggesting that techniques for vein removal may improve the accuracy of the model at very high resolution. However, our results show feasibility of laminar ΔCMRO2 measurement, providing a physiologically meaningful metric of laminar functional metabolism.

In vivo deuterium magnetic resonance imaging of xenografted tumors following systemic administration of deuterated water.

In vivo deuterated water (2H2O) labeling leads to deuterium (2H) incorporation into biomolecules of proliferating cells and provides the basis for its use in cell kinetics research. We hypothesized that rapidly proliferating cancer cells would become preferentially labeled with 2H and, therefore, could be visualized by deuterium magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) following a brief period of in vivo systemic 2H2O administration. We initiated systemic 2H2O administration in two xenograft mouse models harboring either human colorectal, HT-29, or pancreatic, MiaPaCa-2, tumors and 2H2O level of ~ 8% in total body water (TBW). Three schemas of 2H2O administration were tested: (1) starting at tumor seeding and continuing for 7 days of in vivo growth with imaging on day 7, (2) starting at tumor seeding and continuing for 14 days of in vivo growth with imaging on day 14, and (3) initiation of labeling following a week of in vivo tumor growth and continuing until imaging was performed on day 14. Deuterium chemical shift imaging of the tumor bearing limb and contralateral control was performed on either day 7 of 14 after tumor seeding, as described. After 14 days of in vivo tumor growth and 7 days of systemic labeling with 2H2O, a clear deuterium contrast was demonstrated between the xenografts and normal tissue. Labeling in the second week after tumor implantation afforded the highest contrast between neoplastic and healthy tissue in both models. Systemic labeling with 2H2O can be used to create imaging contrast between tumor and healthy issue, providing a non-radioactive method for in vivo cancer imaging.

Magnetic resonance measurements of cellular and sub-cellular membrane structures in live and fixed neural tissue.

We develop magnetic resonance (MR) methods for real-time measurement of tissue microstructure and membrane permeability of live and fixed excised neonatal mouse spinal cords. Diffusion and exchange MR measurements are performed using the strong static gradient produced by a single-sided permanent magnet. Using tissue delipidation methods, we show that water diffusion is restricted solely by lipid membranes. Most of the diffusion signal can be assigned to water in tissue which is far from membranes. The remaining 25% can be assigned to water restricted on length scales of roughly a micron or less, near or within membrane structures at the cellular, organelle, and vesicle levels. Diffusion exchange spectroscopy measures water exchanging between membrane structures and free environments at 100 s-1.

Imaging of glucose metabolism by 13C-MRI distinguishes pancreatic cancer subtypes in mice.

Metabolic differences among and within tumors can be an important determinant in cancer treatment outcome. However, methods for determining these differences non-invasively in vivo is lacking. Using pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma as a model, we demonstrate that tumor xenografts with a similar genetic background can be distinguished by their differing rates of the metabolism of 13C labeled glucose tracers, which can be imaged without hyperpolarization by using newly developed techniques for noise suppression. Using this method, cancer subtypes that appeared to have similar metabolic profiles based on steady state metabolic measurement can be distinguished from each other. The metabolic maps from 13C-glucose imaging localized lactate production and overall glucose metabolism to different regions of some tumors. Such tumor heterogeneity would not be not detectable in FDG-PET.

An Albumin-Binding T1- T2 Dual-Modal MRI Contrast Agents for Improved Sensitivity and Accuracy in Tumor Imaging.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnosis is better assisted by contrast agents that can augment the signal contrast in the imaging appearance. However, this technique is still limited by the inherently low sensitivity on the recorded signal changes in conventional T1 or T2 MRI in a qualitative manner. Here, we provide a new paradigm of MRI diagnosis using T1- T2 dual-modal MRI contrast agents for contrast-enhanced postimaging computations on T1 and T2 relaxation changes. An albumin-binding molecule (i.e., truncated Evans blue) chelated with paramagnetic manganese ion was developed as a novel T1- T2 dual-modal MRI contrast agent at high magnetic field (7 T). Furthermore, the postimaging computations on T1- T2 dual-modal MRI led to greatly enhanced signal-to-noise ratios (SNR) and contrast-to-noise ratios (CNR) in both subcutaneous and orthotopic brain tumor models compared with traditional MRI methods. The T1- T2 dual-modal MRI computations have great potential to eliminate suspicious artifacts and false-positive signals in mouse brain imaging. This study may open new avenues for contrast-enhanced MRI diagnosis and holds great promise for precision medicine.

Dynamic Imaging of Glucose and Lactate Metabolism by 13C-MRS without Hyperpolarization.

Metabolic reprogramming is one of the defining features of cancer and abnormal metabolism is associated with many other pathologies. Molecular imaging techniques capable of detecting such changes have become essential for cancer diagnosis, treatment planning, and surveillance. In particular, 18F-FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) PET has emerged as an essential imaging modality for cancer because of its unique ability to detect a disturbed molecular pathway through measurements of glucose uptake. However, FDG-PET has limitations that restrict its usefulness in certain situations and the information gained is limited to glucose uptake only.13C magnetic resonance spectroscopy theoretically has certain advantages over FDG-PET, but its inherent low sensitivity has restricted its use mostly to single voxel measurements unless dissolution dynamic nuclear polarization (dDNP) is used to increase the signal, which brings additional complications for clinical use. We show here a new method of imaging glucose metabolism in vivo by MRI chemical shift imaging (CSI) experiments that relies on a simple, but robust and efficient, post-processing procedure by the higher dimensional analog of singular value decomposition, tensor decomposition. Using this procedure, we achieve an order of magnitude increase in signal to noise in both dDNP and non-hyperpolarized non-localized experiments without sacrificing accuracy. In CSI experiments an approximately 30-fold increase was observed, enough that the glucose to lactate conversion indicative of the Warburg effect can be imaged without hyper-polarization with a time resolution of 12s and an overall spatial resolution that compares favorably to 18F-FDG PET.

Investigation of the BOLD and CBV fMRI responses to somatosensory stimulation in awake marmosets (Callithrix jacchus).

Understanding the spatiotemporal features of the hemodynamic response function (HRF) to brain stimulation is essential for the correct application of neuroimaging methods to study brain function. Here, we investigated the spatiotemporal evolution of the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) HRF in conscious, awake marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), a New World non-human primate with a lissencephalic brain and with growing use in biomedical research. The marmosets were acclimatized to head fixation and placed in a 7-T magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanner. Somatosensory stimulation (333-µs pulses; amplitude, 2 mA; 64 Hz) was delivered bilaterally via pairs of contact electrodes. A block design paradigm was used in which the stimulus duration increased in pseudo-random order from a single pulse up to 256 electrical pulses (4 s). For CBV measurements, 30 mg/kg of ultrasmall superparamagnetic ironoxide particles (USPIO) injected intravenously, were used. Robust BOLD and CBV HRFs were obtained in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1), secondary somatosensory cortex (S2) and caudate at all stimulus conditions. In particular, BOLD and CBV responses to a single 333-µs-long stimulus were reliably measured, and the CBV HRF presented shorter onset time and time to peak than the BOLD HRF. Both the size of the regions of activation and the peak amplitude of the HRFs grew quickly with increasing stimulus duration, and saturated for stimulus durations greater than 1 s. Onset times in S1 and S2 were faster than in caudate. Finally, the fine spatiotemporal features of the HRF in awake marmosets were similar to those obtained in humans, indicating that the continued refinement of awake non-human primate models is essential to maximize the applicability of animal functional MRI studies to the investigation of human brain function.

In vivo kinetics and nonradioactive imaging of rapidly proliferating cells in graft-versus-host disease.

Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) offers a cure for cancers that are refractory to chemotherapy and radiation. Most HSCT recipients develop chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD), a systemic alloimmune attack on host organs. Diagnosis is based on clinical signs and symptoms, as biopsies are risky. T cells are central to the biology of cGVHD. We found that a low Treg/CD4+ T effector memory (Tem) ratio in circulation, lymphoid, and target organs identified early and established mouse cGVHD. Using deuterated water labeling to measure multicompartment in vivo kinetics of these subsets, we show robust Tem and Treg proliferation in lymphoid and target organs, while Tregs undergo apoptosis in target organs. Since deuterium enrichment into DNA serves as a proxy for cell proliferation, we developed a whole-body clinically relevant deuterium MRI approach to nonradioactively detect cGVHD and potentially allow imaging of other diseases characterized by rapidly proliferating cells.

Endosphenoidal coil for intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging of the pituitary gland during transsphenoidal surgery.

OBJECTIVE Pituitary MR imaging fails to detect over 50% of microadenomas in Cushing's disease and nearly 80% of cases of dural microinvasion. Surface coils can generate exceptionally high-resolution images of the immediately adjacent tissues. To improve imaging of the pituitary gland, a receive-only surface coil that can be placed within the sphenoid sinus (the endosphenoidal coil [ESC]) during transsphenoidal surgery (TSS) was developed and assessed. METHODS Five cadaver heads were used for preclinical testing of the ESC. The ESC (a double-turn, 12-mm-diameter surface coil made from 1-mm-diameter copper wire) was developed to obtain images in a 1.5-T MR scanner. The ESC was placed (via a standard sublabial TSS approach) on the anterior sella face. Clinical MR scans were obtained using the 8-channel head coil and ESC as the receiver coils. Using the ESC, ultra-high-resolution, 3D, balanced fast field echo (BFFE) and T1-weighted imaging were performed at resolutions of 0.25 × 0.25 × 0.50 mm3 and 0.15 × 0.15 × 0.30 mm3, respectively. RESULTS Region-of-interest analysis indicated a 10-fold increase in the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the pituitary when using the ESC compared with the 8-channel head coil. ESC-related improvements (p < 0.01) in the SNR were inversely proportional to the distance from the ESC tip to the anterior pituitary gland surface. High-resolution BFFE MR imaging obtained using ESC revealed a number of anatomical features critical to pituitary surgery that were not visible on 8-channel MR imaging, including the pituitary capsule, the intercavernous sinus, and microcalcifications in the pars intermedia. These ESC imaging findings were confirmed by the pathological correlation with whole-mount pituitary sections. CONCLUSIONS ESC can significantly improve SNR in the sellar region intraoperatively using current 1.5-T MR imaging platforms. Improvement in SNR can provide images of the sella and surrounding structures with unprecedented resolution. Clinical use of this ESC may allow for MR imaging detection of previously occult pituitary adenomas and identify microscopic invasion of the dura or cavernous sinus.

Sensory and optogenetically driven single-vessel fMRI.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sensitivity approaches vessel specificity. We developed a single-vessel functional MRI (fMRI) method to image the contribution of vascular components to blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) fMRI signal. We mapped individual vessels penetrating the rat somatosensory cortex with 100-ms temporal resolution by MRI with sensory or optogenetic stimulation. The BOLD signal originated primarily from venules, and the CBV signal from arterioles. The single-vessel fMRI method and its combination with optogenetics provide a platform for mapping the hemodynamic signal through the neurovascular network with specificity at the level of individual arterioles and venules.

Optically controlled switch-mode current-source amplifiers for on-coil implementation in high-field parallel transmission.

PURPOSE: We tested the feasibility of implementing parallel transmission (pTX) for high-field MRI using a radiofrequency (RF) amplifier design to be located on or in the immediate vicinity of an RF transmit coil. METHOD: We designed a current-source switch-mode amplifier based on miniaturized, nonmagnetic electronics. Optical RF carrier and envelope signals to control the amplifier were derived, through a custom-built interface, from the RF source accessible in the scanner control. Amplifier performance was tested by benchtop measurements as well as with imaging at 7T (300 MHz) and 11.7 T (500 MHz). The ability to perform pTX was evaluated by measuring interchannel coupling and phase adjustment in a two-channel setup. RESULTS: The amplifier delivered in excess of 44 W RF power and caused minimal interference with MRI. The interface derived accurate optical control signals with carrier frequencies ranging from 64 to 750 MHz. Decoupling better than 14 dB was obtained between two coil loops separated by only 1 cm. Application to MRI was demonstrated by acquiring artifact-free images at 7 T and 11.7 T. CONCLUSION: We propose an optically controlled miniaturized RF amplifier for on-coil implementation at high fields that should facilitate implementation of high-density pTX arrays. Magn Reson Med 76:340-349, 2016. Published 2015. This article is a U.S. Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Simultaneous calcium fluorescence imaging and MR of ex vivo organotypic cortical cultures: a new test bed for functional MRI.

Recently, several new functional (f)MRI contrast mechanisms including diffusion, phase imaging, proton density, etc. have been proposed to measure neuronal activity more directly and accurately than blood-oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) fMRI. However, these approaches have proved difficult to reproduce, mainly because of the dearth of reliable and robust test systems to vet and validate them. Here we describe the development and testing of such a test bed for non-BOLD fMRI. Organotypic cortical cultures were used as a stable and reproducible biological model of neuronal activity that shows spontaneous activity similar to that of in vivo brain cortex without any hemodynamic confounds. An open-access, single-sided magnetic resonance (MR) "profiler" consisting of four permanent magnets with magnetic field of 0.32 T was used in this study to perform MR acquisition. A fluorescence microscope with long working distance objective was mounted on the top of a custom-designed chamber that keeps the organotypic culture vital, and the MR system was mounted on the bottom of the chamber to achieve real-time simultaneous calcium fluorescence optical imaging and MR acquisition on the same specimen. In this study, the reliability and performance of the proposed test bed were demonstrated by a conventional CPMG MR sequence acquired simultaneously with calcium imaging, which is a well-characterized measurement of neuronal activity. This experimental design will make it possible to correlate directly the other candidate functional MR signals to the optical indicia of neuronal activity in the future.

A 7T spine array based on electric dipole transmitters.

PURPOSE: The goal of this study was to explore the feasibility of using an array of electric dipole antennas for RF transmission in spine MRI at high fields. METHOD: A two-channel transmit array based on an electric dipole design was quantitatively optimized for 7T spine imaging and integrated with a receive array combining eight loop coils. Using B1+ mapping, the transmit efficiency of the dipole array was compared with a design using quadrature loop pairs. The radiofrequency energy deposition for each array was measured using a home-built dielectric phantom and MR thermometry. The performance of the proposed array was qualitatively demonstrated in human studies. RESULTS: The results indicate dramatically improved transmit efficiency for the dipole design compared with the loop excitation. A gain of up to 76% was achieved within the spinal region. CONCLUSION: For imaging of the spine, electric dipole-based transmitters provide an attractive alternative to the traditional loop-based design. Easy integration with existing receive array technology facilitates practical use at high fields.

In vivo imaging of tumor physiological, metabolic, and redox changes in response to the anti-angiogenic agent sunitinib: longitudinal assessment to identify transient vascular renormalization.

AIMS: The tumor microenvironment is characterized by a highly reducing redox status, a low pH, and hypoxia. Anti-angiogenic therapies for solid tumors frequently function in two steps: the transient normalization of structurally and functionally aberrant tumor blood vessels with increased blood perfusion, followed by the pruning of tumor blood vessels and the resultant cessation of nutrients and oxygen delivery required for tumor growth. Conventional anatomic or vascular imaging is impractical or insufficient to distinguish between the two steps of tumor response to anti-angiogenic therapies. Here, we investigated whether the noninvasive imaging of the tumor redox state and energy metabolism could be used to characterize anti-angiogenic drug-induced transient vascular normalization. RESULTS: Daily treatment of squamous cell carcinoma (SCCVII) tumor-bearing mice with the multi-tyrosine kinase inhibitor sunitinib resulted in a rapid decrease in tumor microvessel density and the suppression of tumor growth. Tumor pO2 imaging by electron paramagnetic resonance imaging showed a transient increase in tumor oxygenation after 2-4 days of sunitinib treatment, implying improved tumor perfusion. During this window of vascular normalization, magnetic resonance imaging of the redox status using an exogenously administered nitroxide probe and hyperpolarized (13)C MRI of the metabolic flux of pyruvate/lactate couple revealed an oxidative shift in tumor redox status. INNOVATION: Redox-sensitive metabolic couples can serve as noninvasive surrogate markers to identify the vascular normalization window in tumors with imaging techniques. CONCLUSION: A multimodal imaging approach to characterize physiological, metabolic, and redox changes in tumors is useful to distinguish between the different stages of anti-angiogenic treatment.

Diffusion properties of conventional and calcium-sensitive MRI contrast agents in the rat cerebral cortex.

Calcium-sensitive MRI contrast agents can only yield quantitative results if the agent concentration in the tissue is known. The agent concentration could be determined by diffusion modeling, if relevant parameters were available. We have established an MRI-based method capable of determining diffusion properties of conventional and calcium-sensitive agents. Simulations and experiments demonstrate that the method is applicable both for conventional contrast agents with a fixed relaxivity value and for calcium-sensitive contrast agents. The full pharmacokinetic time-course of gadolinium concentration estimates was observed by MRI before, during and after intracerebral administration of the agent, and the effective diffusion coefficient D* was determined by voxel-wise fitting of the solution to the diffusion equation. The method yielded whole brain coverage with a high spatial and temporal sampling. The use of two types of MRI sequences for sampling of the diffusion time courses was investigated: Look-Locker-based quantitative T(1) mapping, and T(1) -weighted MRI. The observation times of the proposed MRI method is long (up to 20 h) and consequently the diffusion distances covered are also long (2-4 mm). Despite this difference, the D* values in vivo were in agreement with previous findings using optical measurement techniques, based on observation times of a few minutes. The effective diffusion coefficient determined for the calcium-sensitive contrast agents may be used to determine local tissue concentrations and to design infusion protocols that maintain the agent concentration at a steady state, thereby enabling quantitative sensing of the local calcium concentration.

Perivenular brain lesions in a primate multiple sclerosis model at 7-tesla magnetic resonance imaging.

BACKGROUND Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can provide in vivo assessment of tissue damage, allowing evaluation of multiple sclerosis (MS) lesion evolution over time--a perspective not obtainable with postmortem histopathology. Relapsing-remitting experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is an experimental model of MS that can be induced in the common marmoset, a small new world primate, and that causes perivenular white matter (WM) lesions similar to those observed in MS. METHODS Brain lesion development and evolution were studied in vivo and postmortem in four marmosets with EAE through serial T2- and T2*-weighted scans at 7-tesla. Supratentorial WM lesions were identified and characterized. RESULTS Of 97 lesions observed, 86 (88%) were clearly perivenular, and 62 (72%) developed around veins that were visible even prior to EAE induction. The perivenular configuration was confirmed by postmortem histopathology. Most affected veins, and their related perivascular Virchow-Robin spaces, passed into the subarachnoid space rather than the ventricles. CONCLUSION As in human MS, the intimate association between small veins and EAE lesions in the marmoset can be studied with serial in vivo MRI. This further strengthens the usefulness of this model for understanding the process of perivenular lesion development and accompanying tissue destruction in MS.