Abstract #0018

Microstructural Signatures of Ischemia & Stem Cell Therapy in the Myocardium Revealed with Serial Diffusion Tensor MRI & Tractography of the Mouse Heart In Vivo.

Shuning Huang¹, Choukri Mekkaoui¹, Howard H. Chen¹, Soeun Ngoy², Michael Bauer², Ruopeng Wang¹, Van J. Wedeen¹, Guangping E. Dai¹, Ronglih Liao², David E. Sosnovik^{1,
3}

¹Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Mass General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA; ²Cardiology, Brigham & Woman's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; ³Cardiology, Mass General Hospital, Charlestown, MA, USA

Diffusion tensor MRI (DTI) and tractography of the myocardium has been limited to ex-vivo studies. Here, we show that DTI and tractography of the mouse heart can be performed in-vivo. We report, for the first time, the serial changes in myocardial microstructure seen in acute ischemia, infarct healing, and following stem cell injection. Mean diffusivity increased in acute ischemia and returned towards baseline as the infarct healed. The injection of bone marrow derived progenitor cells produced a transient increase in myocardial microstructure. The value of this approach in guiding the development of stem cell therapy is robustly demonstrated.