Rapid microscopic 3D-diffusion tensor imaging fiber-tracking of mouse brain in vivo by super resolution reconstruction: validation on MAP6-KO mouse model.

Object: Exploring mouse brains by rapid 3D-Diffusion Tensor Imaging (3D-DTI) of high spatial resolution (HSR) is challenging in vivo. Here we use the super resolution reconstruction (SRR) postprocessing method to demonstrate its performance on Microtubule-Associated-Protein6 Knock-Out (MAP6-KO) mice.

Materials And Methods: Two spin-echo DTI were acquired (9.4T, CryoProbe RF-coil): (i)-multislice 2D-DTI, (echo-planar integrating reversed-gradient) acquired in vivo in the three orthogonal orientations (360 μm slice-thickness, 120 × 120 μm in-plane resolution, 56 min scan duration); used in SRR software to reconstruct SRR 3D-DTI with HSR in slice-plane (120 × 120 × 120 µm) and (ii)-microscopic 3D-DTI (µ-3D-DTI), (100 × 100 × 100 µm; 8 h 6 min) on fixed-brains ex vivo, that were removed after paramagnetic contrast-agent injection to accelerate scan acquisition using short repetition-times without NMR-signal sensitivity loss.

Results: White-matter defects, quantified from both 3D-DTI fiber-tracking were found very similar. Indeed, as expected the fornix and cerebral-peduncle volume losses were - 39% and - 35% in vivo (SRR 3D-DTI) versus - 34% and - 32% ex vivo (µ-3D-DTI), respectively (p<0.001). This finding is robust since the µ-3D-DTI feasibility on MAP6-KO ex vivo was already validated by fluorescent-microscopy of cleared brains.

Discussion: First performance of the SRR to generate rapid HSR 3D-DTI of mouse brains in vivo is demonstrated. The method is suitable in neurosciences for longitudinal studies to identify molecular and genetic abnormalities in mouse models that are of growing developments.