Jon Orlando Cleary*1,2, Francesca C. Norris*3,4,
Frances K. Wiseman5, Anthony N. Price3, ManKin Choy3,
Victor L.J. Tybulewicz6, Roger J. Ordidge2,7, Elizabeth
M.C. Fisher5, Mark F. Lythgoe3
1Centre for Advanced Biomedical
Imaging, Department of Medicine and UCL Institute of Child Health ,
University College London, London, United Kingdom; 2Department of
Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, London, United
Kingdom; 3Centre for Advanced Biomedical Imaging, Department of
Medicine and UCL Institute of Child Health, University College London,
London, United Kingdom; 4Centre for Mathematics and Physics in the
Life Sciences and EXperimental Biology (CoMPLEX), University College London,
London, United Kingdom; 5Department of Neurodegenerative Disease,
UCL Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United
Kingdom; 6MRC National Insitiute for Health Research, London,
United Kingdom; 7Wellcome Trust Advanced MRI Laboratory,
University College London, London, *equal contribution
Staining
brain tissue with MR contrast agents is a key part of MR microscopy, enabling
enhanced delineation of structures. Although excised brains allow agent to
quickly penetrate into tissue, brains left in-skull are less susceptible to
damage during tissue extraction and imaging, resulting in more accurate
morphometric analyses. We sought to develop an optimised preparation and
scanning protocol for imaging adult mouse brains in-skull, determining the
timecourse for agent to penetrate into intact brain. Using this protocol we
assessed phenotype in Tc1 mice a model of Down Syndrome. We identified
ventricular enlargement in 10 of 14 transgenic Tc1+ mice imaged.