Abstract #0243

in vivo Quantification of Inflammation Burden in an Experimental Allergic Encephalomyelitis Rat Model Using Fluorine-19 MRI

Jia Zhong¹,², Penelope Morel³, Hongyan Xu,²⁴, Lisa Pusateri,²⁴, Eric T. Ahrens,²⁴

¹Department of Biological Sciences , Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; ²The Pittsburgh NMR Center for Biomedical Research, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States; ³Department of Immunology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, pittsburgh, PA, United States; ⁴Department of Biological Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, United States

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system affecting millions of people worldwide. Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a widely used animal model of MS. EAE is a T cell-mediated inflammatory and demyelinating disease that displays perivascular and parenchymal infiltrates in the central nervous system (CNS). In this study, we applied in vivo 19F MRI methods to quantify the macrophage burden in EAE rats; we show that large number of infiltrates are present in both the CNS and proximal vertebral bone marrow Also, we demonstrate that 19F MRI is very effective in monitoring the therapeutic effects of cyclophosphamide, an apparent EAE treatment. .