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Assessment of the myelin water fraction in rodent spinal cord using T2-prepared ultrashort echo time MRI

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Abstract

Objective

Multi-component T2 relaxation allows for assessing the myelin water fraction in nervous tissue, providing a surrogate marker for demyelination. The assessment of the number and distribution of different T2 components for devising exact models of tissue relaxation has been limited by T2 sampling with conventional MR methods.

Materials and methods

A T2-prepared UTE sequence was used to assess multicomponent T2 relaxation at 9.4 T of fixed mouse and rat spinal cord samples and of mouse spinal cord in vivo. For in vivo scans, a cryogenically cooled probe allowed for 78-µm resolution in 1-mm slices. Voxel-wise non-negative least square analysis was used to assess the number of myelin water-associated T2 components.

Results

More than one myelin water-associated T2 component was detected in only 12 % of analyzed voxels in rat spinal cords and 6 % in mouse spinal cords, both in vivo and in vitro. However, myelin water-associated T2 values of individual voxels varied between 0.1 and 20 ms. While in fixed samples almost no components below 1 ms were identified, in vivo, these contributed 14 % of the T2 spectrum. No significant differences in MWF were observed in mouse spinal cord in vivo versus ex vivo measurements.

Conclusion

Voxel-wise analysis methods using relaxation models with one myelin water-associated T2 component are appropriate for assessing myelin content of nervous tissue.

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Abbreviations

CPMG:

Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill

CSF:

Cerebrospinal fluid

FWF:

Free water fraction

GM:

Gray matter

IE:

Intra-/extracellular

MET2:

Multi-exponential T2

MRI:

Magnetic resonance imaging

MWF:

Myelin water fraction

NNLS:

Non-negative least square

OWF:

Other water fraction

PBS:

Phosphate-buffered saline

ROI:

Region of interest

SNR:

Signal-to-noise ratio

TE:

Echo time

TR:

Repetition time

UTE:

Ultrashort echo time

WM:

White matter

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the German Research Foundation SFB 1009 Project Z02 and the IZKF Münster, PIX. We thank Nathalie Just and Lydia Wachsmuth for helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Radiology, University Hospital Münster, Albert-Schweitzer-Campus 1, Building A16, 48149, Münster, Germany

    Tim Klasen & Cornelius Faber

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  1. Tim Klasen
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  2. Cornelius Faber
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Correspondence to Cornelius Faber.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical standards

All procedures performed in studies involving animals were in accordance with national legislation and in accordance with the ethical standards in North Rhine Westphalia. This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

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Klasen, T., Faber, C. Assessment of the myelin water fraction in rodent spinal cord using T2-prepared ultrashort echo time MRI. Magn Reson Mater Phy 29, 875–884 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-016-0579-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-016-0579-7

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