Ihssan S. Masad1,2, Jacob M. Wilson3,
S-R Lee3, Y-M Park3, Paul C. Henning3,
Bahram H. Arjmandi3, J-S Kim3, Samuel Colles Grant1,2
1Department of Chemical &
Biomedical Engineering, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United
States; 2National High Magnetic field Laboratory, Tallahassee, FL,
United States; 3Department of Nutrition, Food & Exercise
Sciences, The Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States
Diffusion
tensor imaging (DTI) has demonstrated remarkable capability to assess
cross-sectional areas (CSA) and myofiber architecture in muscle. However, DTI
has not been applied to the study of age-related muscle wasting, known as
sacropenia, in rodents. In this work, the effects of age on CSA and
anisotropy of water diffusion in muscle are studied under the influence of advanced
aging in rats. Results demonstrate that the soleus CSA and ADC decrease with
age until reaching a plateau at advanced time points. FA increases with age
until it also plateaus. These findings indicate that DTI is sensitive to
sacropenic alterations.
Keywords