Mlanie Craveiro1, Philippe Coune2,
Bernard Schneider2, Patrick Aebischer2, Rolf Gruetter1,3
1Laboratory for Functional
& Metabolic Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne,
Switzerland; 2Neurodegenerative Studies Laboratory, Ecole
Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; 3Universities
of Lausanne & Geneva, Departments of Radiology, Switzerland
Animal models of Parkinsons disease (PD) provide an experimental means to define early markers of pathological changes that may affect the nigrostriatal pathway prior to overt neurodegeneration. Only a few toxin-based PD animal models have been investigated by MR spectroscopy (MRS) yet. In this study, the neurochemical profile of two PD rat models, a toxin-based model and a model expected to more faithfully replicate early pathological alterations leading to PD in humans, were acquired by MRS in the striatum. The use of these two models provided a powerful means to detect proper markers of the pathology.