Longitudinal evaluation of myofiber microstructural changes in a preclinical ALS model using the transverse relaxivity at tracer equilibrium (TRATE): A preliminary study.
Magn Reson Imaging
; 85: 217-221, 2022 01.
Article
in En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34715291
ABSTRACT
T2â relaxivity contrast imaging may serve as a potential imaging biomarker for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) by noninvasively quantifying the tissue microstructure. In this preliminary longitudinal study, we investigated the Transverse Relaxivity at Tracer Equilibrium (TRATE) in three muscle groups between SOD1-G93A (ALS model) rat and a control population at two different timepoints. The control group was time matched to the ALS group such that the second timepoint was the onset of disease. We observed a statistically significant decrease in TRATE over time in the gastrocnemius, tibialis, and digital flexor muscles in the SOD1-G93A model (p-value = 0.003, 0.008, 0.005; respectively), whereas TRATE did not change over time in the control group (p-value = 0.4777, 0.6837, 0.9682; respectively). Immunofluorescent staining revealed a decrease in minimum fiber area and cell density in the SOD1-G93A model when compared to the control group (p-value = 6.043E-10 and 2.265E-10, respectively). These microstructural changes observed from histology align with the theorized biophysical properties of TRATE. We demonstrate that TRATE can longitudinally differentiate disease associated atrophy from healthy muscle and has potential to serve as a biomarker for disease progression and ultimately therapy response in patients with ALS.
Key words
Full text:
1
Collection:
01-internacional
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Type of study:
Observational_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Limits:
Animals
/
Humans
Language:
En
Journal:
Magn Reson Imaging
Year:
2022
Document type:
Article
Affiliation country: