Research Center for Sectional and Imaging Anatomy, Shandong University Cheeloo College of Medicine, 250012, Jinan, Shandong, China; Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA.
Department of Medical Imaging, Xuzhou Medical University, 221004, Xuzhou, Jiangsu, China; Laboratory of Neuro Imaging (LONI), USC Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute, Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA.
Neuroimage. 2020 Feb 15;207:116372. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116372. Epub 2019 Nov 18.
The protracted nature of development makes the cerebellum vulnerable to a broad spectrum of pathologic conditions, especially during the early fetal period. This study aims to characterize normal cerebellar growth in human fetuses during the early second trimester. We manually segmented the fetal cerebellum using 7.0-T high-resolution MR images obtained in 35 specimens with gestational ages ranging from 15 to 22 weeks. Volume measurements and shape analysis were performed to quantitatively evaluate global and regional cerebellar growth. The absolute volume of the fetal cerebellum showed a quadratic growth with increasing gestational age, while the pattern of relative volume changes revealed that the cerebellum grew at a greater pace than the cerebrum after 17 gestational weeks. Shape analysis was used to examine the distinctive development of subregions of the cerebellum. The extreme lateral portions of both cerebellar hemispheres showed the lowest rate of growth. The anterior lobe grew faster than most of the posterior lobe. These findings expand our understanding of the early growth pattern of the human cerebellum and could be further used to assess the developmental conditions of the fetal brain.
小脑的发育过程较为漫长，使其容易受到广泛的病理条件影响，尤其是在胎儿早期。本研究旨在描述人类胎儿在妊娠中期第二个 10 周时的正常小脑生长情况。我们使用 7.0-T 高分辨率磁共振成像对 35 个样本进行了手动分割，这些样本的胎龄范围从 15 周到 22 周。我们进行了体积测量和形状分析，以定量评估小脑的整体和区域生长。胎儿小脑的绝对体积随胎龄的增加呈二次生长，而相对体积变化的模式表明，小脑在 17 周后比大脑生长更快。形状分析用于检查小脑各亚区的独特发育。小脑两个半球的最外侧部分生长速度最慢。前叶比后叶的大部分区域生长更快。这些发现扩展了我们对人类小脑早期生长模式的理解，可进一步用于评估胎儿大脑的发育状况。
