Abstract #1532

In-vivo characterization of the biochemical properties of the locus coeruleus and substantia nigra in healthy controls and Parkinson’s disease

Catarina Rua¹, Claire O'Callaghan², Ron Ye^3,4, Luca Passamonti³, P Simon Jones³, Guy B Williams¹, James B Rowe^3,4, and Christopher T Rodgers¹

¹Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, ²Behavioural and Clinical Neuroscience Institute and Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, ³Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, ⁴Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom

In Parkinson’s disease, there is severe loss of dopaminergic projection neurons of the substantia nigra (SN) and locus coeruleus (LC). Histology shows that damage is non-uniform and occurs in stages; i.e. there is preferential degeneration of neurons first in the rostral portion of the SN and only later on in the LC. In this study, we measured the biochemical properties of the SN and LC with T2* and Magnetization Transfer imaging in patients with Parkinson’s disease and two groups of healthy controls.

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