Yuanxin Chen1, Kem A. Rogers2, Brian K. Rutt3
1Imaging Research Laboratories, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada; 2Department of Anatomy and Cell biology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada; 3Department of Radiology, Stanford University, CA, United States
Extracellular amyloid deposits constitute the main targets for new diagnostics and therapeutics of Alzheimers disease (AD). In this study, we evaluated an ex vivo MR protocol for visualization of amyloid plaques in cholesterol-fed rabbit model of AD. Brain tissue was soaked in the Magnevist to allow contrast agent penetration in the core of brain tissue before MR imaging. We have demonstrated that infiltration of contrast agent increases the detachability of amyloid plaques in the rabbit AD model. These results point to the possibility of using intrathecal injection of contrast agent for in vivo imaging amyloid plaques using clinical-strength MRI.