Craig A. Branch1,2, Victor V. Dyakin3, Yuanxin Chen4, V Veranna3, A Kumar3, C Peterhoff3, Randolph Nixon3,5
1Medical Physics, Nathan Kline Institute,
Orangeburg, NY, USA; 2 Radiology, Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, Bronx, NY, USA; 3Dementia Research, Nathan Kline
Institute, Organgeburg, NY, USA; 4Robarts Research Institute,
London, ON, Canada; 5Psychiatry, New York University, New York, NY,
USA
Two types of mice, Shiverer mice (model of reduced CNS myelin sheath formation) and HM-DKO mice (reduced neurofilament content) were examined to determine the contribution of axonal myelin and neurofilaments upon the T2. Immunocytochemical and electron microscopic (EM) techniques were employed to uncover the contribution of each to the T2 relaxation rate within the corpus collasum. T2 increase in the CC of Shiverer mice is associated with loss of myelin bound water while in MH-DKO mice, neurofilament loss only slightly elevated the T2 in CC, suggesting a minimal effect of neurofilaments upon cytoplasm T2.