Paraformaldehyde & Glutaraldehyde Fixations Preserve Manganese Enhancement in Ex Vivo Mouse Brain MRI

Yutong Liu¹, Larisa Poluektova², Balasrinivasa Sajja¹, Howard Gendelman², Boska Michael¹

Cross-linking chemicals including paraformaldehyde (PFA) and glutaraldehyde (GA) and focused beam microwave irradiation (FBMI) were evaluated to investigate the fixation methods that preserve in vivo manganese enhancement for ex vivo mouse brain MRI. T1 values were measured and T1-wt MRI was acquired at 24 hours after MnCl2 administration. The mice were then euthanized and brains were fixed for ex vivo MRI. The results demonstrated that the manganese enhancement was preserved by PFA and GA, but lost in FBMI fixed mice.