Katharina Schregel1,2,
Eva Wuerfel3, Philippe Garteiser4, Timur Prozorovskiy5,
Hartmut Merz6, Dirk Petersen1, Jens Wuerfel1,7,
Ralph Sinkus4,7
1Institute
of Neuroradiology, University Luebeck,
Luebeck, Germany; 2INSERM UMR 773, CRB3, Centre de Recherches
Biomdicales Bichat-Beaujon , Paris, France; 3Department of
Pediatrics, University Luebeck, Luebeck, Germany; 4INSERM UMR 773,
CRB3, Centre de Recherches Biomdicales Bichat-Beaujon, Paris, France; 5Molecular
Neurology, Heinrich-Heine-University, Life Science Center, Duesseldorf,
Germany; 6Department of Pathology, University Luebeck, Luebeck,
Germany; 7authors contributed equally
Magnetic Resonance Elastography (MRE) is a novel technique that directly visualizes and quantitatively measures biomechanical tissue properties in vivo. Already smallest changes of the brain parenchymal viscoelasticity, e.g. occurring during physiological brain maturation in adolescent mice, can be reliably detected. In a longitudinal study, we correlated for the first time biomechanical properties quantified in vivo by MRE with detailed histopathology of brain parenchymal alterations in healthy C57bl/6 mice and in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis. MRE correlated with the degree of myelination as well as with extracellular matrix integrity, but not with cellular infiltration into the brain parenchyma.
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