Abstract #0160

Magnetic properties of dopaminergic neurons in human substantia nigra quantified with MR microscopy

Malte Brammerloh^1,2, Evgeniya Kirilina^1,3, Renat Sibgatulin⁴, Karl-Heinz Herrmann⁴, Tilo Reinert¹, Carsten Jäger^1,5, Primož Pelicon⁶, Primož Vavpetič⁶, Kerrin J. Pine¹, Andreas Deistung⁷, Markus Morawski⁵, Jürgen R. Reichenbach⁴, and Nikolaus Weiskopf^1,2

¹Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany, ²Faculty of Physics and Earth Sciences, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany, ³Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ⁴Medical Physics Group, University Hospital Jena, Jena, Germany, ⁵Paul Flechsig Institute of Brain Research, Leipzig, Germany, ⁶Microanalytical Center, Department for Low and Medium Energy Physics, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia, ⁷Department of Radiology, University Hospital Halle, Halle, Germany

MRI-based quantification of dopaminergic neurons (DN) and their neuromelanin (NM) in substantia nigra (SN) has great potential to serve as a specific biomarker for neurodegeneration in movement disorders. We used 22-µm-resolution post mortem MR microscopy combined with ion beam microscopy to characterize the magnetic properties of DN. MR microscopy visualized individual DN and provided 3D cellular maps of the entire SN. Static dephasing was determined as main effective transverse relaxation mechanism of DN. We characterized the susceptibility of iron in DN and estimated that the contribution of DN to R2* and QSM may also be detected with in vivo MRI.

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