Alejandra Sierra1,
Tuukka Miettinen1, Teemu Laitinen1, Asla Pitknen1,
2, Olli Grhn3
1Department
of Neurobiology, A.I. Virtanen Institute for Molecular Sciences, University
of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland; 2Department of Neurology,
Kuopio University Hospital, Kuopio, Finland; 3Department of
Neurobiology, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland
In the present study, we tested a hypothesis that in vivo diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) can detect and follow progression of microstructural changes in several hippocampal subfields in animal models of epilepsy. Rats were scanned using high resolution DTI before, and 10, 20, 34 and 79 days after status epilepticus induced by kainic acid or pilocarpine. We found robust and progressive changes in fractional anisotropy and in principal diffusion direction in the dentate gyrus and CA3bc. The value of these changes as potential predictive biomarkers for epilepsy has to be tested in the future
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