High resolution diffusion imaging in the unfixed post-mortem infant brain at 7T

Wu, W. et al. (2024) High resolution diffusion imaging in the unfixed post-mortem infant brain at 7T. Imaging Neuroscience, (doi: 10.1162/imag_a_00069) (Early Online Publication)

Abstract

Diffusion MRI of the infant brain allows investigation of the organizational structure of maturing fibers during brain development. Post-mortem imaging has the potential to achieve high resolution by using long scan times, enabling precise assessment of small structures. Technical development for post-mortem diffusion MRI has primarily focused on scanning of fixed tissue, which is robust to effects like temperature drift that can cause unfixed tissue to degrade. The ability to scan unfixed tissue in the intact body would enable post-mortem studies without organ donation, but poses new technical challenges. This paper describes our approach to scan setup, protocol optimization, and tissue protection in the context of the Developing Human Connectome Project (dHCP) of neonates. A major consideration was the need to preserve the integrity of unfixed tissue during scanning in light of energy deposition at ultra-high magnetic field strength. We present results from one of the first two subjects recruited to the study, who died on postnatal day 46 at 29+6 weeks postmenstrual age, demonstrating high-quality diffusion MRI data. We find altered diffusion properties consistent with post-mortem changes reported previously. Preliminary voxel-wise and tractography analyses are presented with comparison to age-matched in vivo dHCP data. These results show that high-quality, high-resolution post-mortem data of unfixed tissue can be acquired to explore the developing human brain.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement no. 319456. We are grateful to the families who generously supported this trial. The Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging is supported by core funding from the Wellcome Trust (203139/Z/16/Z). W.W. is supported by the Royal Academy of Engineering (RF\201819\18\92). K.L.M. is supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT202788/Z/16/A). L.B., F.A., R.E.F., V.M., F.M., and R.S. are supported by the Wellcome Trust (207457/Z/17/Z). J.S. is supported by a IDEXLYON “IMPULSION 2020 grant (IDEX/IMP/2020/14) and the Labex CORTEX ANR-11-LABX-0042 of Université de Lyon. A.F.D.H. is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC, EP/L016052/1) and Medical Research Council (MRC, grant MR/L009013/1). This research was supported by the NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR203316).
• Status: Early Online Publication
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Porter, Professor David

Creator Roles

Porter, D.: Investigation, Methodology, Writing – review and editing

• Authors: Wu, W., Rieger, S. W., Baxter, L., Adams, E., Andersson, J. L.R., Cobo, M. M., Andritsou, F., Bastiani, M., Fry, R. E., Frost, R., Fitzgibbon, S., Foxley, S., Fowler, D., Gallagher, C., Howard, A. F.D., Hajnal, J. V., Moultrie, F., Monk, V., Porter, D. A., Papp, D., Price, A., Sallet, J., Sanders, M., Wilkinson, D., Slater, R., and Miller, K. L.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: Imaging Neuroscience
• Publisher: MIT Press
• ISSN: 2837-6056
• ISSN (Online): 2837-6056
• Published Online: 04 January 2024
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2024 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• First Published: First published in Imaging Neuroscience 2024; 2 1–20
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a creative commons licence