Julie Nogee1, Brian S. Stone2, Devin W. Mack2, Lee J. Martin3, Michael I. Miller4, Susumu Mori5, Frances J. Northington2, Jiangyang Zhang5
1Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Pediatrics, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 3Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 4Center of Imaging Science, Johns Hopkins University; 5Radiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA
We examined early cortical and hippocampal injury in a neonatal mouse model of hypoxia-ischemia using ex vivo DTI and histology. DTI revealed changes in fractional anisotropy and disruption of the radial structural patterns in the sensory cortex and hippocampal pyramidal cell layer at 24 hours after injury in p8, as well as in p11 and p15 mice. Immunohistochemistry revealed massive neurodegeneration with disruption of the axono-dendritic compartment in the injured cortex and hippocampus at p8, p11 and p15. The results suggest that DTI is useful for detecting specific neuropathology in the gray matter in this model.