Neuroscience Program, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, Illinois, USA.
Pediatr Res. 2012 Feb;71(2):179-84. doi: 10.1038/pr.2011.21. Epub 2011 Dec 21.
Appeal for the domestic pig as a preclinical model for neurodevelopmental research is increasing. One limitation, however, is lack of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) methods for brain volume quantification in the neonatal piglet. The purpose of this study was to develop and validate MRI methods for estimating brain volume in piglets.
The results showed that MRI and manual segmentation reliably estimated the changes in volume of different brain regions in 2- and 5-wk-old piglets. Substantial increases in the volumes of all brain regions examined were evident during the 3-wk period.
MRI can provide accurate estimates of brain region volume during the neonatal period in piglets. A piglet model that can be used in longitudinal studies may be useful for investigating how experimental (e.g., nutrition, infection) factors affect brain growth and development.
Anatomic MRI data (non-longitudinal) were acquired 2- and 5-wk-old piglets using a three--dimensional T1-weighted magnetization-prepared gradient echo (MPRAGE) sequence on a MAGNETOM Trio 3T imager. Manual segmentation was performed for volume estimates of total brain, cortical, diencephalon, brainstem, cerebellar, and -hippocampal regions. The MRI-based hippocampal volume estimates in 2- and 5-wk-old piglets were validated using histological techniques and the Cavalieri method.
呼吁将家猪作为神经发育研究的临床前模型的呼声越来越高。然而，一个限制因素是缺乏用于量化新生仔猪脑容量的磁共振成像 (MRI) 方法。本研究的目的是开发和验证用于估计仔猪脑容量的 MRI 方法。
结果表明，MRI 和手动分割可靠地估计了 2 至 5 周龄仔猪不同脑区体积的变化。在 3 周的时间内，所有检查的脑区体积都明显增加。
MRI 可以在仔猪的新生儿期提供对脑区体积的准确估计。可用于纵向研究的仔猪模型可能有助于研究实验（例如营养、感染）因素如何影响大脑的生长和发育。
使用 MAGNETOM Trio 3T 成像仪上的三维 T1 加权磁化准备梯度回波 (MPRAGE) 序列获取 2 至 5 周龄仔猪的解剖 MRI 数据（非纵向）。手动分割用于估计总脑、皮质、间脑、脑干、小脑和海马区的体积。使用组织学技术和 Cavalieri 方法验证了 2 至 5 周龄仔猪的 MRI 海马体积估计值。
