Nataliya Moldovan1, Nicholas A. Bock1
1McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
MEMRI is widely used in animal brain imaging with divalent manganese providing T1 contrast. However, given that manganese shares transporter proteins with iron and copper, the contrast may be a result of disrupted transition metal homeostasis in the brain. We measured the regional manganese, iron, and copper levels in rodent brains treated with fractionated high-doses of manganese using x-ray fluorescence and neutron activation analysis. We found that overall metal homeostasis was not disrupted, except for decreasing iron levels in the thalamus. This decrease in iron could result in a significant change in MEMRI contrast.