title: Diffusion kurtosis imaging to detect amyloidosis in an APP/PS1 mouse model for Alzheimer's disease.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Amyloid deposition in the brain is considered an initial event in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. We hypothesized that the presence of amyloid plaques in the brain of APP/presenilin 1 mice leads to higher diffusion kurtosis measures due to increased microstructural complexity. As such, our purpose was to provide an in vivo proof of principle for detection of amyloidosis by diffusion kurtosis imaging (DKI).
  
  
  METHODS
  APPKM670/671NL /presenilin 1 L166P mice (n = 5) and wild-type littermates (n = 5) underwent DKI at the age of 16 months. Averaged diffusion and diffusion kurtosis parameters were obtained for multiple regions (hippocampus-cortex-thalamus-cerebellum). After DKI, mice were sacrificed for amyloid staining.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Histograms of the frequency distribution of the DKI parameters tended to shift to higher values. After normalization of absolute values to the cerebellum, a nearly plaque-free region, mean, radial, and axial diffusion kurtosis were significantly higher in APP/presenilin 1 mice as compared to wild-type in the cortex and thalamus, regions demonstrating substantial amyloid staining.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The current study, although small-scale, suggests increased DKI metrics, in the absence of alterations in diffusion tensor imaging metrics in the cortex and thalamus of APP/presenilin 1 mice with established amyloidosis. These results warrant further investigations on the potential of DKI as a sensitive marker for Alzheimer's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biomedical Sciences, Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium. Greetje.Vanhoutte@ua.ac.be
authors.forename: Greetje
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Vanhoutte
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pereson
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Delgado Y Palacios
authors.forename: Pieter-Jan
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Guns
authors.forename: Bob
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Asselbergh
authors.forename: Jelle
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Veraart
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sijbers
authors.forename: Marleen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Verhoye
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Van Broeckhoven
authors.forename: Annemie
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Van der Linden
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor / Q000235:genetics*; D000686:Amyloidosis / Q000150:complications / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D000818:Animals; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D051379:Mice; D008822:Mice, Transgenic; D053764:Presenilin-1 / Q000235:genetics*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D016564:Amyloid beta-Protein Precursor; D053764:Presenilin-1; C580804:presenilin 1, mouse