Abstract #1465

In vivo Parametric T 1/R 1 Imaging Correlation with Myelin Density and Microstructure Properties of Rat Corpus Callosum

Xiao Wang^1,2,3, Xiao-hong Zhu¹, Yi Zhang¹, and Wei Chen¹

¹Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United States, ²Diagnostic Radiology, University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis, MN, United States, ³Transitional Year Residency Program, Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis, MN, United States

Corpus callosum (CC) is a prominent white matter commissure of the brain bridging two cerebral hemispheres and communicating between the cortical and subcortical neurons. It is known that the fiber composition and microstructure of CC varies anteriorly to posteriorly ^{(1, 2)}. Due to different spatial scale, co-register of macro-morphologic MR image with micro-morphologic histology transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of CC is extremely strenuous and challenging yet necessary and important. In the present study, we performed an extensive and near point to point comparison between MR T₁/R₁ imaging in vivo and histological TEM of the entire CC in normal rat. It shows that there is a significantly positive correlation between R₁ and myelin density and negative correlation between R₁ and the axon diameter in normal rat corpus callosum. The overall results indicate that T₁/R₁ images are tightly correlated to myelin density and provide robust assessment of myelin density and axon size in vivo, thus, should provide valuable information of the microstructure properties of the tissue. Moreover, all measures are highly inhomogeneous in CC.

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