In vivo magnetic resonance microimaging of individual amyloid plaques in Alzheimer's transgenic mice.
The ability to detect individual Alzheimer's amyloid plaques in vivo by magnetic resonance microimaging (MRI) should improve diagnosis and also accelerate discovery of effective therapeutic agents for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Here, we perform in vivo and ex vivo MRI on double transgenic AD mice as well as wild-type mice at varying ages and correlate these with thioflavin-S and iron staining histology. Quantitative counts of individual plaques on MRI increase with age and correlate with histologically determined plaque burden. Plaques 20 microm in diameter can be detected in AD mice as young as 3 months of age with ex vivo MRI. Plaques 35 microm in diameter can be detected by 9 months of age with in vivo MRI. In vivo MRI of individual Alzheimer's amyloid plaques provides a noninvasive estimate of plaque burden in transgenic AD mice that might be useful in assessing the efficacy of amyloid reduction therapies.
Jack
Clifford R
CR
Department of Radiology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota 55905, USA. jack.clifford@mayo.edu
Wengenack
Thomas M
TM
Reyes
Denise A
DA
Garwood
Michael
M
Curran
Geoffrey L
GL
Borowski
Bret J
BJ
Lin
Joseph
J
Preboske
Gregory M
GM
Holasek
Silvina S
SS
Adriany
Gregor
G
Poduslo
Joseph F
JF
D000367:Age Factors; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D052160:Benzothiazoles; D001931:Brain Mapping; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D058225:Plaque, Amyloid / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology*; D013194:Staining and Labeling / Q000379:methods; D013844:Thiazoles / Q000378:metabolism
D052160:Benzothiazoles; D013844:Thiazoles; C009462:thioflavin T