Abstract #0322

Formalin Tissue Fixation Biases Myelin Density Measurement by Quantitative Magnetization Transfer and Myelin Water Imaging

Alan C Seifert^1,2,3, Melissa Umphlett⁴, Mary Fowkes⁴, and Junqian Xu^1,2,3,5

¹Translational and Molecular Imaging Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ²Department of Radiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ³Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ⁴Department of Pathology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States, ⁵Department of Neuroscience, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, United States

Quantitative magnetization transfer (qMT) and multi-exponential T₂-based myelin water imaging (MWI) are commonly-used MRI methods to quantify myelin content. Ex vivo MRI remains an essential step for validating these quantitative in vivo MRI biomarkers. However, ex vivo tissue is often preserved using formalin, which cross-links proteins and directly impacts these methods. We performed qMT and MWI on human spinal cord tissue before and after formalin fixation to quantify the effect of fixation on these biomarkers. QMT bound pool fraction (F) increased by 37.5% and MWI myelin water fraction (MWF) increased by 35.5-38.6%, but myelin-related image contrast was preserved.

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