Kamila Urszula Szulc1, Edward Joseph Houston1,
Roy V. Sillitoe2, Alexandra L. Joyner3, Daniel H.
Turnbull1,4
1Skirball Institute, NYU School of
Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 2Neuroscience, Albert
Einstein College of Medicine, New York, NY, United States; 3Developmental
Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY; 4Radiology,
NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States
In
this study we demonstrate a potential of contrast enhanced micro-MRI approach
for simultaneous anatomical phenotyping of the cerebellum and the
vestibulo-cochlear organ in wild type mice and Gbx2-CKO mutant mice, which
have severe defects in the Cb in the form of deletion of its central part.
Additionally, these mice display abnormalities in the anatomy of
flocculus-paraflocculus complex, a region of the Cb that receives projections
from the vestibular organs and is critical for normal vestibular function. It
was therefore of interest to determine whether the Cb defects were accompanied
by additional, previously overlooked abnormalities in the vestibulo-cochlear
organ.
Keywords