Schellenberg Angela E, Buist Richard, Yong V Wee, Del Bigio Marc R, Peeling James
Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Magn Reson Med. 2007 Aug;58(2):298-305. doi: 10.1002/mrm.21289.
Inflammation, demyelination, and blood-spinal cord barrier (BSB) breakdown occur in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), an animal model of multiple sclerosis. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of MRI for detecting lesions and BSB disruption in vivo during EAE in the mouse lumbar spinal cord, to determine how MR features of BSB disruption change during the course of disease, and to relate such changes to clinical signs and histological features of disease. Following induction of EAE in C57BL/6 mice, contrast-enhanced (CE) T(1)-weighted MR images were acquired to detect BSB disruption in the lumbar spinal cord at the early stage of disease, at peak disease, and at remission, and T(2)-weighted images were obtained to monitor spinal cord morphology. Following imaging the spinal cords were assessed in situ for general features of inflammation, BSB leakage, activated macrophages/microglia, and demyelination. No focal lesions were evident on T(2)-weighted MR images. BSB disruption was greatest at the onset of signs of disease, and decreased progressively thereafter. Inflammation and demyelination were pronounced at the initial stage of disease and at peak disease, and were decreased at remission. Nonuniform contrast enhancement indicated that breakdown of the BSB occurred predominantly within the white matter (WM) of the spinal cord.
实验性自身免疫性脑脊髓炎（EAE）是一种多发性硬化症的动物模型，会出现炎症、脱髓鞘和血脊髓屏障（BSB）破坏。本研究的目的是评估MRI在小鼠腰段脊髓EAE病程中检测体内病变和BSB破坏的效用，确定疾病过程中BSB破坏的MR特征如何变化，并将这些变化与疾病的临床体征和组织学特征相关联。在C57BL/6小鼠中诱导EAE后，采集对比增强（CE）T1加权MR图像以检测疾病早期、疾病高峰期和缓解期腰段脊髓的BSB破坏，并获取T2加权图像以监测脊髓形态。成像后，对脊髓进行原位评估，以观察炎症、BSB渗漏、活化的巨噬细胞/小胶质细胞和脱髓鞘的一般特征。T2加权MR图像上未发现明显的局灶性病变。BSB破坏在疾病体征出现时最为严重，此后逐渐减轻。炎症和脱髓鞘在疾病初期和高峰期较为明显，在缓解期则减轻。不均匀的对比增强表明BSB破坏主要发生在脊髓白质（WM）内。
