Chia-Wen Chiang1, Junjie Chen2,
Sheng-Kwei Song3
1Chemistry, Washington University in
St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States; 2Medicine, Washington
University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States; 3Radiology,
Washington University in St. Louis, Saint Louis, MO, United States
Apparent
diffusion coefficient (ADC) is a widely used neuronal injury marker for early
detection of various brain disorders. In the current study, we investigated
the timing of decreased ADC vs. the detectable tissue swelling resulting from
N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) induced cytotoxic edema in mouse retina in vivo. Results suggest that
decreased ADC is a biomarker of cytotoxic edema providing an early measure of
retinal excitotoxic injury before detectable retinal swelling.