Abstract #1543

Remote neurodegeneration in a rat contusion spinal cord injury model: a combined MRI and histological study

Gergely David¹, Alice Motovylyak², Felix Schlegel³, Zsofia Kovacs³, Matthew Budde⁴, Christian Kündig¹, Jan Klohs^3,5, and Patrick Freund^1,6,7

¹Spinal Cord Injury Center, Balgrist University Hospital, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ²Department of Biomedical Engineering, Marquette University and Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, United States, ³Institute for Biomedical Engineering, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ⁴Department of Neurosurgery, Medical College of Wisconsin, Clement J Zablocki Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Milwaukee, WI, United States, ⁵Neuroscience Center Zurich, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, ⁶Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, ⁷Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Neuroimaging, UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom

Synopsis

Keywords: Neurodegeneration, TraumaMRI has been widely used to investigate the structural damage after traumatic spinal cord injury (SCI). While most small animal studies have focused on the injury site, remote SCI-related damage along the neuraxis has received less attention. Here, we demonstrate that ex vivo diffusion MRI and cross-sectional area measurements are sensitive to remote neurodegeneration in a rat contusion SCI model, showing gray matter and dorsal column atrophy alongside decreased fractional anisotropy in the dorsal columns several spinal levels rostral to the injury epicenter. Imaging findings were consistent with SMI32 immunohistochemistry with axonal degeneration mostly concentrated in the dorsal column.

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