Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland 21205, USA.
Magn Reson Med. 2010 Jul;64(1):249-61. doi: 10.1002/mrm.22426.
Diffusion tensor imaging is gaining increasing importance for anatomical imaging of the developing mouse brain. However, the application of diffusion tensor imaging to mouse brain imaging at microscopic levels is hindered by the limitation on achievable spatial resolution. In this study, fast diffusion tensor microimaging of the mouse brain, based on a diffusion-weighted gradient and spin echo technique with twin-navigator echo phase correction, is presented. Compared to echo planar and spin echo acquisition, the diffusion-weighted gradient and spin echo acquisition resulted in significant reduction in scan time and had minimal image distortion, thereby allowing acquisition at higher spatial resolution. In this study, three-dimensional diffusion tensor microimaging of the mouse brains at spatial resolutions of 50-60 microm revealed unprecedented anatomical details. Thin fiber bundles in the adult striatum and white matter tracts in the embryonic day 12 mouse brains were visualized for the first time. The study demonstrated that data acquired using the diffusion tensor microimaging technique allow three-dimensional mapping of gene expression data and can serve as a platform to study gene expression patterns in the context of neuroanatomy in the developing mouse brain.
扩散张量成像技术在发育中的小鼠大脑的解剖成像中越来越重要。然而，由于空间分辨率的限制，扩散张量成像在小鼠大脑的微观水平成像中的应用受到阻碍。在这项研究中，提出了一种基于扩散加权梯度和自旋回波技术的快速扩散张量微成像方法，采用双导航回波相位校正。与回波平面和自旋回波采集相比，扩散加权梯度和自旋回波采集显著缩短了扫描时间，并且图像失真最小，从而允许更高的空间分辨率采集。在这项研究中，在 50-60 微米的空间分辨率下对小鼠大脑进行三维扩散张量微成像，揭示了前所未有的解剖细节。成年纹状体中的细纤维束和胚胎第 12 天小鼠大脑中的白质束首次被可视化。该研究表明，使用扩散张量微成像技术获得的数据允许对基因表达数据进行三维映射，并可作为研究发育中小鼠大脑中神经解剖结构背景下基因表达模式的平台。
