Firat Kara1, Janneke Ravensbergen1, Niels Braakman1, Mark A. van Buchem2, Reinhard Schliebs3, Huub J.M. de Groot1, A Alia1
1Leiden Institute of Chemistry, Leiden University, Leiden, P.O. Box 9502, Netherlands; 2Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands; 3Paul Flechsig Institute for Brain Research, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
It is well known that vascular abnormalities coexist with other pathological features of Alzheimers disease (AD). In this study we applied high resolution MRA at 9.4T to compare the vascular architecture of living APPTg2576 transgenic and control mice. Due to high field strength and use of strong gradients, the large and medium sized arteries were very clearly imaged. Flow voids were observed at different places such as in superior cerebral artery, anterior cerebral arteries as well as in pterygopalatine arteries. Our results suggest that MRA at high magnetic field is useful method to monitor blood flow defect in mouse models of AD.