Abstract #1633

Deane N, Foutch C, Colvin D, Does M, Gore J

The presence of restrictive barriers in biological tissues serves to reduce the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of self-diffusing water molecules, compared to that of unrestricted water. At long diffusion times, a single diffusing molecule may experience a variety of local environments and barriers, and thus a reduced ADC reflects structure over the size of a cell or larger. However, at shorter diffusion times, the ADC is affected by boundaries of a much smaller spatial dimension and thus reveals changes on a subcellular scale. We have therefore used ADC as a measure of the effects of internal reorganization during cellular mitosis.