title: Identification and characterization of Huntington related pathology: an in vivo DKI imaging study.
abstract: An important focus of Huntington Disease (HD) research is the identification of symptom-independent biomarkers of HD neuropathology. There is an urgent need for reproducible, sensitive and specific outcome measures, which can be used to track disease onset as well as progression. Neuroimaging studies, in particular diffusion-based MRI methods, are powerful probes for characterizing the effects of disease and aging on tissue microstructure. We report novel diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI) findings in aged transgenic HD rats. We demonstrate altered diffusion metrics in the (pre)frontal cerebral cortex, external capsule and striatum. Presence of increased diffusion complexity and restriction in the striatum is confirmed by an increased fiber dispersion in this region. Immunostaining of the same specimens reveals decreased number of microglia in the (pre)frontal cortex, and increased numbers of oligodendrocytes in the striatum. We conclude that DKI allows sensitive and specific characterization of altered tissue integrity in this HD rat model, indicating a promising potential for diagnostic imaging of gray and white matter pathology.
authors: Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. Ines.Blockx@ua.ac.be
authors: Ines
authors: I
authors: Blockx
authors: Marleen
authors: M
authors: Verhoye
authors: Johan
authors: J
authors: Van Audekerke
authors: Irene
authors: I
authors: Bergwerf
authors: Jack X
authors: JX
authors: Kane
authors: Rafael
authors: R
authors: Delgado Y Palacios
authors: Jelle
authors: J
authors: Veraart
authors: Ben
authors: B
authors: Jeurissen
authors: Kerstin
authors: K
authors: Raber
authors: Stephan
authors: S
authors: von Hörsten
authors: Peter
authors: P
authors: Ponsaerts
authors: Jan
authors: J
authors: Sijbers
authors: Trygve B
authors: TB
authors: Leergaard
authors: Annemie
authors: A
authors: Van der Linden
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006816:Huntington Disease / Q000473:pathology*; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008297:Male; D051381:Rats; D055647:Rats, Transgenic