Karunakaran Chandran1, Xiping Liu1, Donna McAllister1, Vinai Roopchansingh1, B. Douglas Ward1, William E. Antholine1, Joy Joseph1, Shi-Jiang Li1, B. Kalyanaraman1
1Biophysics, Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI, USA
The role of mitochondrial dysfunction in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is well established. In this study we have combined the EPR and MRI techniques to better understand the changes in the MR signal intensity detected in a preclinical ALS mouse model. Low-temperature EPR data indicate that cytochrome c release from mitochondria during ALS progression correlates with the observed T2 increase in brain stem of ALS mice. The T2 hyperintensity may be attributed to increased spin conversion from a low spin iron (S=1/2) to a high spin iron (S=5/2) of cytochrome c in ALS brain stem tissues.