Christoph Blau1, Ranya Bechara1, Christian Matthias Kerskens1, Marina Anne Lynch1
1Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience, Dublin, Ireland
We show an age-dependent decrease in T2 relaxation times in the cortex and hippocampus of the rat brain as measured by fast imaging with steady-state precession (FISP) and echo-train multi-slice multi-echo (MSME) at 7 Tesla, which is absent in mixed- and white matter areas. We show an increase in T2 relaxation time in the hippocampus of aged rats chronically treated with the selective ligand of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ Rosiglitazone compared to age-matched controls. The change in T2 is hypothesised to be due to age-related neuroinflammation that is being partially inhibited by the drug.
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