Abstract #1286

Using diffusion MRI to study demyelination in cortex and deep gray matter in animal model of multiple sclerosis

Tina Pavlin^1,2, Vanja Flatberg³, Renate Gruner^2,4, Erlend Hodneland^5,6, and Stig Wergeland^7,8

¹Molecular Imaging Center, Department of Biomedicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, ²Department of Radiology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway, ³Department of Physics, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, ⁴Department of Physics and Technology, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, ⁵Christian Michelsen Research, Bergen, Norway, ⁶MedViz Research Cluster, Bergen, Norway, ⁷KG Jebsen Centre for MS-Research, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway, ⁸The Norwegian Multiple Sclerosis Competence Centre, Department of Neurology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway

We have applied a biophysical model of diffusion to study dendrite density and diffusion in cortex and deep gray matter in an animal model of MS. We have performed DTI on mice brains ex-vivo at baseline, after 3 and 5 weeks of cuprizone exposure, and 4 weeks after termination of exposure. We observed a significant drop in neurite density and an increase in intra-axonal diffusion at 3 and 5 weeks of exposure, and a recovery to baseline values after remyelination. Our study shows the potential of DTI to detect subtle changes in myelin content in gray matter, thereby improving out understanding of the disease.

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