Carlos
J. Perez-Torres1,2, Robia G. Pautler1,2
1Interdepartmental Program in
Translational Biology and Molecular Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston,
TX, United States; 2Department of Molecular Physiology &
Biophysics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, United States
cFos
is a widely utilized marker of neuronal activation that currently requires ex vivo immunohistochemistry for
detection. We believe detecting cFos expression in vivo with MRI would
provide an unparalleled means to assess neuronal activation in mouse models
of human diseases. Importantly, the
levels of activation would be a direct measurement of neuronal function. . We
have previously described a novel approach to detect Green Fluorescent
Protein (GFP) expression in vivo
using Magnetization Transfer MRI.
Here, we apply the MRI based detection of GFP to evaluate a cFos-GFP
fusion model.