Whole-brain ex-vivo quantitative MRI of the cuprizone mouse

Myelin is a critical component of the nervous system and a major contributor to contrast in Magnetic Resonance (MR) images. However the precise contribution of myelination to multiple MR modalities is still under debate. The cuprizone mouse is a well established model of demyelination that has been used in several MR studies, but these have often imaged only a single slice and analysed a small region of interest in the corpus callosum. We imaged and analyzed the whole brain of the cuprizone mouse ex-vivo using high-resolution quantitative MR methods (multi-component DESPOT, Diffusion Tensor Imaging and Tensor Based Morphometry) and found changes in multiple regions, including the corpus callosum, cerebellum, thalamus and hippocampus. However the presence of inflammation, confirmed with histology, presents difficulties in isolating the sensitivity and specificity of these MR methods to demyelination using this model.