Cristina Cudalbu1,
Melanie Craveiro2,
1Laboratory for
Functional & Metabolic Imaging (LIFMET), Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de
Lausanne (EPFL) , Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Laboratory for
Functional & Metabolic Imaging (LIFMET), Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de
Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; 3Institute of
Neuropathology, University Hospital of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland; 4Departments
of Radiology, Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
The prion diseases form a group of fatal neurodegenerative diseases. We performed an in vivo longitudinal 1H MRS study at 14.1T to measure the neurochemical profile of Prnp -/- and PrP32-121 mice in the hippocampus and cerebellum. Our data showed significant increase of Glu, Lac and Ins in the hippocampus of Prnp -/- mice which seems to indicate a dysfunction in the neurotransmitter metabolism and astrogliosis. The decrease of tNAA detected in PrP32-121 mice seems to reflect neuronal loss in while the increase of Ins in the cerebellum may reflect astrogliosis, consistent with the histological features.