Assessing Anti-Inflammation and Axonal Preservation Effect of FTY720 Using Diffusion MRI

Xiaojie Wang¹, Yong Wang², Cheryl Nutter³, Sheng-Kwei Song²

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an inflammatory demyelinating disease with axonal injury causing permanent neurological disabilities. Axonal preservation remains a significant challenge in current anti-inflammatory therapies of MS. In the present study, we demonstrate the efficacy of anti-inflammation and axonal preservation of FTY720 on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) mice examined using diffusion MRI. The effect of increased cellularity and vasogenic edema associated with inflammation on diffusion tensor imaging parameters was also examined.