Abstract #2335
Manganese-enhanced MRI of the spinal cord for in vivo assessment of damage and functional improvement following spinal cord injury in mice treated with 95CDL Antibodies
Stieltjes B, Klussmann S, Bock M, Martin-Villalba A, Essig M
DKFZ
Recent experiments have shown functional recovery after spinal cord injury (SCI) using CD95L antibody treatment. We describe how quantitative MEMRI of the spinal cord (SC) can be used to evaluate the efficacy of novel drugs directed against SCI. We studied the differences of manganese uptake in the SC before and after treatment in SCI mice treated with CD95L antibody. We correlated clinical evaluation of SCI mice with follow up SC MEMRI. MEMRI-derived parameters correlate strongly with the clinical status Thus, MEMRI of the SCI can be used as an objective measure of improved function after treatment for SCI.