Evaluation of Therapeutic Effect on Renal Fibrosis by Diffusion-Weighted Imaging

Osamu Togao¹, Shigehiro Doi², Makoto Kuro-O², Masaya Takahashi¹

In an experimental murine model of unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO), we previously demonstrated that diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) can depict and enable monitoring of abnormal changes in the progression of renal fibrosis. A progressive decrease in ADC was observed in the obstructed kidneys only, which correlated with an increase in cell density in the interstitial space, expression levels of -smooth muscle actin (SMA), a marker for myofibroblasts, collagen deposition, and tubular atrophy on histologic sections. In the present study, we investigated whether DWI can be used for evaluation of the therapeutic response on the progression of the renal fibrosis.