Manganese Enhanced MRI - Advances & Applications
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Tuesday May 10th
Room 710A  10:30 - 12:30 Moderators: Nick Bock and Daniel Turnbull

10:30 234.   In Vivo Manganese-enhanced MRI of Conditioned Fear Response  
Iris Yuwen Zhou1,2, Abby Y Ding1,2, Qi Li3,4, Frank Yik Hin Lee1,2, Shujuan J Fan1,2, Kevin Chuen Wing Chan1,2, Grainne M McAlonan3,4, and Ed Xuekui Wu1,2
1Laboratory of Biomedical Imaging and Signal Processing, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, People's Republic of, 2Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, People's Republic of, 3Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong Kong, 4Centre for Reproduction Growth and Development, The University of Hong Kong

 
Fear conditioning is a widely used procedure to study the neural basis of learning and memory. To study the neurocircuits behind this paradigm, in vivo MEMRI was employed to investigate the neural response after subjection to fear-conditioning in mice. Compared to controls, fear-conditioned animals exhibited higher Mn-uptake in amygdala, hippocampus, paraventricular nucleus of hypothalamus and cingulate cortex, which are all highly-involved in the process of fear. The results provide insights to neurocircuits involved in fear-conditioning and consolidate the capability of MEMRI as an in vivo probe for mapping neural activity.

 
10:42 235.   Mapping CNS Response to Leptin by MEMRI 
A-B-M-A Asad1, Serene YL Tong1, Ma Wei2, Weiping Han2, and Kai-Hsiang Chuang1
1Magnetic Resonance Imaging Group, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, A*STAR, Singapore, Singapore, 2Lab of Metabolic Medicine, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, A*STAR, Singapore, Singapore

 
Leptin signaling in CNS plays an important role in regulating energy homeostasis which inhibits food intake and increases energy expenditure. To understand the CNS response to leptin, we used manganese enhanced MRI to observe dynamic changes in hypothalamic nuclei by Mn2+ as an Ca2+ activity dependent agent during fasting and peripheral leptin injection. We observed signal changes in arcuate, paraventricular, ventromedial and dorsomedial nuclei in hypothalamus. Injection of leptin suppressed signal significantly in most nuclei in fasted animals. In non-fasted animals, however, leptin injection increased signal in most nuclei but not arcuate. This method can be applied to study hypothalamic function in response to different metabolic signals and hypothalamic dysfunction in animal models of leptin resistance.

 
10:54 236.   Biocompatible and pH sensitive PLGA encapsulated MnO nanocrystals for molecular and cellular MRI 
Margaret F Bennewitz1, Michael K Nkansah1, Tricia L Lobo2, and Erik M Shapiro1,2
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, United States, 2Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, United States

 
Inorganic manganese particles are attractive for molecular and cellular imaging due to their potential to provide bright contrast on MRI. We have fabricated pH-sensitive, poly(lactic-co-glycolic-acid) (PLGA) encapsulated manganese oxide (MnO) nanocrystals. Particles were fabricated at 140-nm and 1.7-lower case Greek mum, and incorporated 15 to 20-nm MnO nanocrystals. Intact particles at physiological pH cause little MRI contrast, but following endocytosis into low pH compartments within cells, particles erode, and MnO dissolves to release Mn2+, causing cells to appear bright on MR images. The change in MRI properties is as high as 35-fold, making it the most dynamic ‘smart’ MRI contrast agent yet reported.

 
11:06 237.   In-vivo detection of cell cycle arrest using manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) 
Shigeyoshi Saito1, Sumitaka Hasegawa1, Takako Furukawa1, Tsuneo Saga1, and Ichio Aoki1
1Molecular Imaging Center (MIC), National Institute of Radiological Sciences (NIRS), Chiba, Chiba, Japan

 
Recent studies on the utility of manganese have shown that manganese-enhanced MRI (MEMRI) can detect cellular alterations in tumor models. We investigated the relationship between x-ray irradiation and Mn uptake in tumor cells and tested whether MEMRI can detect radiation-induced cell disturbances at an early stage. MEMRI is able to detect cell cycle arrest of tumor cells following radiation exposure. Reductions in Mn accumulation in the irradiated cells were observed both in vitro and in vivo. MEMRI may be suitable for evaluation of not only cell viability but also the acute stage of cell cycle alteration after radiotherapy.

 
11:18 238.   MEMRI Atlas of Neonatal Mouse Brain Development 
Kamila Urszula Szulc1, Brian J Nieman2, Edward Jospeh Houston1, Alexandra L Joyner3, and Daniel H Turnbull1,4
1Kimmel Center for Biology and Medicine at the Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States, 2Mouse Imaging Center, Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada, 3Developmental Biology Program, Sloan-Kettering Institute, New York, NY, United States, 4Radiology, NYU School of Medicine, New York, NY, United States

 
MEMRI approach is particularly well suited to visualize brain anatomy and it has been successfully used to do so in mice in vivo at embryonic to adult stages. Here, we have extended MEMRI for longitudinal studies of brain development in individual mice during the critical early postnatal period. Based on these data, a brain atlas was created, consisting of individual and average brains at 11 developmental stages, from postnatal day 1 (P1) to P11. The database generated in this project will serve as an important resource for future phenotypic MEMRI analyses of mutant mice with brain defects.

 
11:30 239.   Brain Regions showing Manganese Accumulation in the Human versus the Rat Brain 
Ulrike Dydak1,2, Jun Xu1,2, Ashritha Epur2, Xiangrong Li3, Seth Streitmatter1, Li-Ling Long3, Wei Zheng1, and Yue-Ming Jiang4
1School of Health Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, United States, 2Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, IN, United States, 3Department of Radiology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China, People's Republic of, 4Department of Health Toxicology, Guangxi Medical University, Nanning, China, People's Republic of

 
A 3D whole-brain T1-weigthed sequence was used to study the human brain structures showing T1 hyperintensities due to occupational Mn exposure in a cohort of smelters and welders. Brain regions showing Mn accumulation were compared to non-exposed controls as well as to a rat model of chronic Mn exposure. While the rat brain predominantly shows Mn accumulation in hippocampus, in humans Mn first accumulates in the globus pallidus. T1 hyperintensities were also found in subthalamic nucleus, pituitary gland, pineal stalk and cerebral peduncle. These differences need to be considered when using animal models to study chronic Mn exposure.

 
11:42 240.   Mn Distribution in rat hippocampus: Correlative use of Synchrotron X-Ray Microprobe and MEMRI 
alexia Daoust1,2, Emmanuel Luc Barbier1,2, and Sylvain Bohic1,3
1INSERM U836, Grenoble, France, 2Grenoble Institut des Neurosciences, Université Joseph Fourier, Grenoble, France, 3European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), Grenoble, France

 
In MEMRI protocols, the cellular distribution remains still unclear. To obtain further insights, we imaged rat brains by MRI after IP and IC MnCl2 injections. Then, using synchrotron X-ray microprobe, we mapped the distribution of Mn, Ca, Zn and Fe in rat hippocampus. The hippocampal distributions of Mn obtained by both techniques were in excellent agreement. At a cellular scale, Mn was distributed within the DG/hilus/CA3. After IC injection, Mn was preferentially located in hippocampal fissure, a structure rich in astrocytes. The presence of Mn also modifies the distribution of Fe and Zn.

 
11:54 241.   Detection of altered axonal transport a mouse model of neurofibromatosis using manganese enhanced MRI 
Kevin M. Bennett1, Shannon S. Olfers2, and Vinodh Narayanan2
1School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Az, United States, 2Developmental Neurogenetics Laboratory, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, Az, United States

 
Neurofibromatosis 1 (NF1) is a cogenital neurodegenerative disease. The goal of this work is to determine whether fast axonal transport rates in the CNS of mice heterozygous for the neurofibromin 1 (NF1) gene differ from those of WT controls. We used MEMRI to demonstrate that uptake of Mn2+ in the olfactory bulb in NF1 heterozygous mice is significantly lower than in wild-type, implicating RAS deregulation as a potential mechanism for deficits in NF. Animals treated with lovastatin have restored axonal transport, demonstrating that MEMRI may be useful to screen compounds to treat patients with NF1.

 
12:06 242.   Aging impacts significantly on neuronal transport in normal mice but not in an accelerated mouse model of Amyloid Beta pathology 
Umer Abdur Rahim Khan1, Anne Bertrand1,2, Hoang Minh Dung1, Dmitry Novikov1, Lindsay Kathleen Hill1, Benjamin Winthrope Little1, Hameetha B Rajamohamed Sait3, Mesha Shamsie1, Einar M Sigurdsson3, and Youssef Zaim Wadghiri1
1Radiology, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States, 2URA CEA-CNRS 2210, Mircen, Fontenay-Aux-Roses, France, 3Physiology & Neuroscience, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, NY, United States

 
Amyloid Beta (A Beta) and tau play an essential role in the Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathophysiology. There is in vitro evidence that A Beta oligomers can impair fast axonal transport. Crucially lacking are in vivo non invasive techniques to evaluate neuronal function. Track-Tracing Manganese Enhanced MRI (TT-MEMRI) is currently the only non invasive 4-D volumetric imaging technique to demonstrate neuronal transport perturbations. Applying MEMRI in a transgenic model (Tg2576) of A Beta pathology by expressing human APP mutation confirmed the deleterious effect of A Beta on neuronal transport measured by a decrease in the rate of signal change. We previously investigated a tau model (JNPL3) using a 7 day time-course period where we showed a significant decrease in neuronal transport function in Tg mice. In the present study, we sought to examine with the same approach an accelerated A Beta mouse model (Tg6799 5xFAD) expressing both APP and PS1 human mutations. Surprisingly, our results show significant decrease in neuronal conduction in the (C57/B6xSJL) WT mice with age contrasting with maintained transport function in Tg 5xFAD with age.

 
12:18 243.   Paraformaldehyde and glutaraldehyde fixations preserve manganese enhancement in ex vivo mouse brain MRI 
Yutong Liu1, Larisa Poluektova2, Balasrinivasa Sajja1, Howard Gendelman2, and Boska Michael1
1Radiology, UNMC, Omaha, NE, United States, 2Pharmacology/Exp Neuroscience, UNMC, Omaha, NE, United States

 
Cross-linking chemicals including paraformaldehyde (PFA) and glutaraldehyde (GA) and focused beam microwave irradiation (FBMI) were evaluated to investigate the fixation methods that preserve in vivo manganese enhancement for ex vivo mouse brain MRI. T1 values were measured and T1-wt MRI was acquired at 24 hours after MnCl2 administration. The mice were then euthanized and brains were fixed for ex vivo MRI. The results demonstrated that the manganese enhancement was preserved by PFA and GA, but lost in FBMI fixed mice.