Wen Li1,2, Jia Zhong1,2, Ya Chen1,2, Laurie Castel3, Ming Lu1,2, Wei Li1,2, David van Wagoner3, Xin Yu1,2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; 2Case Center for Imaging Research, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA; 3Department of Molecular Cardiology, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, USA
This study aims to explore the sensitivity of MEMRI in detecting changes of calcium handling in an α-dystrobrevin knockout mouse model, which showed higher calcium influx through the L-type calcium channel from whole cell patch clamp studies. Intraperitoneal injection of 12.6 μmol MnCl2 led to a 37% signal enhancement for both knockout and control groups. The increased calcium influx in knockout mice was reflected by significantly earlier and faster (19.4 vs 13.3 min-1) signal enhancement in MEMRI experiment. This study suggests that in vivo MEMRI is sensitive to subtle changes of calcium influx associated with disruption in signaling gene.
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