Characterization of Brain Abnormalities in Lactational Neurodevelopmental Poly I:C Rat Model of Schizophrenia and Depression Using Machine-Learning and Quantitative MRI.

Background: A recent neurodevelopmental rat model, utilizing lactational exposure to polyriboinosinic-polyribocytidilic acid (Poly I:C) leads to mimics of behavioral phenotypes resembling schizophrenia-like symptoms in male offspring and depression-like symptoms in female offspring.

Purpose: To identify mechanisms of neuronal abnormalities in lactational Poly I:C offspring using quantitative MRI (qMRI) tools.

Study Type: Prospective.

A comprehensive protocol for quantitative magnetic resonance imaging of the brain at 3 Tesla.

Quantitative MRI (qMRI) has been shown to be clinically useful for numerous applications in the brain and body. The development of rapid, accurate, and reproducible qMRI techniques offers access to new multiparametric data, which can provide a comprehensive view of tissue pathology. This work introduces a multiparametric qMRI protocol along with full postprocessing pipelines, optimized for brain imaging at 3 Tesla and using state-of-the-art qMRI tools.

Probing muscle recovery following downhill running using precise mapping of MRI T relaxation times.

Purpose: Postexercise recovery rate is a vital component of designing personalized training protocols and rehabilitation plans. Tracking exercise-induced muscle damage and recovery requires sensitive tools that can probe the muscles' state and composition noninvasively.

Methods: Twenty-four physically active males completed a running protocol consisting of a 60-min downhill run on a treadmill at -10% incline and 65% of maximal heart rate.

Estimation of subvoxel fat infiltration in neurodegenerative muscle disorders using quantitative multi-T analysis.

MRI's T relaxation time is a valuable biomarker for neuromuscular disorders and muscle dystrophies. One of the hallmarks of these pathologies is the infiltration of adipose tissue and a loss of muscle volume. This leads to a mixture of two signal components, from fat and from water, to appear in each imaged voxel, each having a specific T relaxation time.

Fast and accurate T mapping using Bloch simulations and low-rank plus sparse matrix decomposition.

Purpose: MRI's T relaxation time is one of the key contrast mechanisms for clinical diagnosis and prognosis of pathologies. Mapping this relaxation time, however, involves extensive scan times, which are needed to collect quantitative data, thereby impeding its integration into clinical routine. This study employs a low-rank plus sparse (L + S) signal decomposition approach in order to reconstruct accurate T-maps from highly undersampled multi-echo spin-echo (MESE) MRI data.

Psychophysical Evaluation of Visual vs. Computer-Aided Detection of Brain Lesions on Magnetic Resonance Images.

Background: Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) diagnosis is usually performed by analyzing contrast-weighted images, where pathology is detected once it reached a certain visual threshold. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) has been proposed as a way for achieving higher sensitivity to early pathology.

Purpose: To compare conventional (i.

Mapping of magnetic resonance imaging's transverse relaxation time at low signal-to-noise ratio using Bloch simulations and principal component analysis image denoising.

High-resolution mapping of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)'s transverse relaxation time (T ) can benefit many clinical applications by offering improved anatomic details, enhancing the ability to probe tissues' microarchitecture, and facilitating the identification of early pathology. Increasing spatial resolutions, however, decreases data's signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), particularly at clinical scan times. This impairs imaging quality, and the accuracy of subsequent radiological interpretation.

Age Differences in Recovery Rate Following an Aerobic-Based Exercise Protocol Inducing Muscle Damage Among Amateur, Male Athletes.

Compare recovery rates between active young (Y) and middle-aged (MA) males up to 48H post aerobically based, exercise-induced muscle damage (EIMD) protocol. A secondary aim was to explore the relationships between changes in indices associated with EIMD and recovery throughout this timeframe. Twenty-eight Y ( = 14, 26.

Determining the internal orientation, degree of ordering, and volume of elongated nanocavities by NMR: Application to studies of plant stem.

This study investigates the fibril nanostructure of fresh celery samples by modeling the anisotropic behavior of the transverse relaxation time (T) in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Experimental results are interpreted within the framework of a previously developed theory, which was successfully used to model the nanostructures of several biological tissues as a set of water filled nanocavities, hence explaining the anisotropy the T relaxation time in vivo. An important feature of this theory is to determine the degree of orientational ordering of the nanocavities, their characteristic volume, and their average direction with respect to the macroscopic sample.

Correcting for imaging gradients-related bias of T relaxation times at high-resolution MRI.

Purpose: High-resolution animal imaging is an integral part of preclinical drug development and the investigation of diseases' pathophysiology. Quantitative mapping of T relaxation times (qT ) is a valuable tool for both preclinical and research applications, providing high sensitivity to subtle tissue pathologies. High-resolution T mapping, however, suffers from severe underestimation of T values due to molecular diffusion.

Data-driven algorithm for myelin water imaging: Probing subvoxel compartmentation based on identification of spatially global tissue features.

Purpose: Multicomponent analysis of MRI T relaxation time (mcT ) is commonly used for estimating myelin content by separating the signal at each voxel into its underlying distribution of T values. This voxel-based approach is challenging due to the large ambiguity in the multi-T space and the low SNR of MRI signals. Herein, we present a data-driven mcT analysis, which utilizes the statistical strength of identifying spatially global mcT motifs in white matter segments before deconvolving the local signal at each voxel.

Quantitative platform for accurate and reproducible assessment of transverse (T ) relaxation time.

MRI's transverse relaxation time (T ) is sensitive to tissues' composition and pathological state. While variations in T values can be used as clinical biomarkers, it is challenging to quantify this parameter in vivo due to the complexity of the MRI signal model, differences in protocol implementations, and hardware imperfections. Herein, we provide a detailed analysis of the echo modulation curve (EMC) platform, offering accurate and reproducible mapping of T values, from 2D multi-slice multi-echo spin-echo (MESE) protocols.

T2 Mapping Values in Postmeniscectomy Knee Articular Cartilage after Running: Early Signs of Osteoarthritis?

Loading on the joints during running may have a deleterious effect on post-partial meniscectomy knee cartilage, leading to osteoarthritis. Utilizing T2-mapping measurements before and after running may enable the observation of changes in the articular cartilage of the postmeniscectomy knees compared with healthy knees. After medial partial meniscectomy, 12 volunteers underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the both knees, before and immediately after 30 minutes of running.

Analysis of magnetization transfer (MT) influence on quantitative mapping of T relaxation time.

Purpose: Multi-echo spin-echo (MESE) protocol is the most effective tool for mapping T relaxation in vivo. Still, MESE extensive use of radiofrequency pulses causes magnetization transfer (MT)-related bias of the water signal, instigated by the presence of macromolecules (MMP). Here, we analyze the effects of MT on MESE signal, alongside their impact on quantitative T measurements.

A Phosphatidylserine Source of Docosahexanoic Acid Improves Neurodevelopment and Survival of Preterm Pigs.

The amount, composition, and sources of nutrition support provided to preterm infants is critical for normal growth and development, and particularly for structural and functional neurodevelopment. Although omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA), and particularly docosahexanoic acid (DHA), are considered of particular importance, results from clinical trials with preterm infants have been inconclusive because of ethical limitations and confounding variables. A translational large animal model is needed to understand the structural and functional responses to DHA.

Therapeutic N-Acetyl-Cysteine (Nac) Following Initiation of Maternal Inflammation Attenuates Long-Term Offspring Cerebral Injury, as Evident in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI).

Maternal infection/inflammation may induce fetal inflammatory responses, which have been associated with long-term offspring cerebral injury. We previously demonstrated that prophylactic N-Acetyl-Cysteine (NAC), administered prior to and following maternal lipopolysaccharide (LPS), reduced offspring cerebral injury as evident on MRI. In the present study, we used MRI to examine the effect of therapeutic NAC following maternal LPS-induced inflammation on neonatal brain injury.

Nano-Drugs Based on Nano Sterically Stabilized Liposomes for the Treatment of Inflammatory Neurodegenerative Diseases.

The present study shows the advantages of liposome-based nano-drugs as a novel strategy of delivering active pharmaceutical ingredients for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases that involve neuroinflammation. We used the most common animal model for multiple sclerosis (MS), mice experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). The main challenges to overcome are the drugs' unfavorable pharmacokinetics and biodistribution, which result in inadequate therapeutic efficacy and in drug toxicity (due to high and repeated dosage).

Neurodegeneration of lateral habenula efferent fibers after intermittent cocaine administration: implications for deep brain stimulation.

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is an emerging technique for effective, non-pharmacological intervention in the course of neurological and neuropsychiatric diseases. Several brain targets have been suggested as suitable for DBS treatment of drug addiction. Previously, we showed that DBS of the lateral habenula (LHb) can reduce cocaine intake, facilitate extinction and attenuate drug-induced relapse in rats trained to self-administrate cocaine.

The CONNECT project: Combining macro- and micro-structure.

In recent years, diffusion MRI has become an extremely important tool for studying the morphology of living brain tissue, as it provides unique insights into both its macrostructure and microstructure. Recent applications of diffusion MRI aimed to characterize the structural connectome using tractography to infer connectivity between brain regions. In parallel to the development of tractography, additional diffusion MRI based frameworks (CHARMED, AxCaliber, ActiveAx) were developed enabling the extraction of a multitude of micro-structural parameters (axon diameter distribution, mean axonal diameter and axonal density).

Magnetic resonance imaging characterization of different experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis models and the therapeutic effect of glatiramer acetate.

The roles of inflammation and degeneration as well as of gray matter abnormalities in multiple sclerosis (MS) and its animal model experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) are controversial. We analyzed the pathological manifestations in two EAE models, the chronic oligodendrocyte glycoprotein (MOG)-induced versus the relapsing-remitting proteolipid protein (PLP)-induced, along the disease progression, using advanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) parameters. The emphasis of this study was the overall assessment of the whole brain by histogram analysis, as well as the detection of specific affected regions by voxel based analysis (VBA) using quantitative T2, magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).

Diffusion MRI of structural brain plasticity induced by a learning and memory task.

Background: Activity-induced structural remodeling of dendritic spines and glial cells was recently proposed as an important factor in neuroplasticity and suggested to accompany the induction of long-term potentiation (LTP). Although T1 and diffusion MRI have been used to study structural changes resulting from long-term training, the cellular basis of the findings obtained and their relationship to neuroplasticity are poorly understood.

Methodology/principal Finding: Here we used diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to examine the microstructural manifestations of neuroplasticity in rats that performed a spatial navigation task.