Ex vivo diffusion-weighted MRI tractography of the Göttingen minipig limbic system.

The limbic system encompasses a collection of brain areas primarily involved in higher cognitive and emotional processing. Altered function in the limbic circuitry may play a major role in various psychiatric disorders. This study aims to provide a high-quality ex vivo diffusion-weighted MRI (DWI) tractographic overview of the Göttingen minipig limbic system pathways, which are currently not well described.

The porcine corticospinal decussation: A combined neuronal tracing and tractography study.

Background: Pigs and minipigs are increasingly used as non-primate large animal models for preclinical research on nervous system disorders resulting in motor dysfunction. Knowledge of the minipig pyramidal tract is therefore essential to support such models.

Aim And Methods: This study used 5 female Göttingen minipigs aging 11-15 months.

A fiducial skull marker for precise MRI-based stereotaxic surgery in large animal models.

Background: Stereotaxic neurosurgery in large animals is used widely in different sophisticated models, where precision is becoming more crucial as desired anatomical target regions are becoming smaller. Individually calculated coordinates are necessary in large animal models with cortical and subcortical anatomical differences.

New Method: We present a convenient method to make an MRI-visible skull fiducial for 3D MRI-based stereotaxic procedures in larger experimental animals.

Exposure of the Pig CNS for Histological Analysis: A Manual for Decapitation, Skull Opening, and Brain Removal.

Pigs have become increasingly popular in large-animal translational neuroscience research as an economically and ethically feasible substitute to non-human primates. The large brain size of the pig allows the use of conventional clinical brain imagers and the direct use and testing of neurosurgical procedures and equipment from the human clinic. Further macroscopic and histological analysis, however, requires postmortem exposure of the pig central nervous system (CNS) and subsequent brain removal.