Henry Szu-Meng Chen1,
2, Nathan Holmes3, Wolfram Tetzlaff3, 4,
Piotr Kozlowski, 35
1Physics
and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 2UBC
MRI Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada; 3ICORD, Vancouver, BC,
Canada; 4Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC,
Canada; 5Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC,
Canada
In this study we looked at the impact of osmolarity on MR measurements of myelin water fraction (MWF) by varying the concentration of the phosphate buffer used in aldehyde fixation of ex vivo rat spinal cord sample and correlating it to the changes in water environment measured by the tunneling electron microscopy (TEM). The results show decreasing MWF measurement with increasing concentration of phosphate buffer due to the effect of osmolarity gradient on the sealed myelin water compartment. The MR MWF and TEM MWF comparison suggests strong correlation between the methods.
Keywords