Miniature pig model of human adolescent brain white matter development.

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND:Neuroscience research in brain development and disorders can benefit from an in vivo animal model that portrays normal white matter (WM) development trajectories and has a sufficiently large cerebrum for imaging with human MRI scanners and protocols. NEW METHOD:Twelve three-month-old Sinclair™ miniature pigs (Sus scrofa domestica) were longitudinally evaluated during adolescent development using advanced diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) focused on cerebral WM. Animals had three MRI scans every 23.95?±?3.73?days using a 3-T scanner. The DWI imaging protocol closely modeled advanced human structural protocols and consisted of fifteen b-shells (b?=?0-3500?s/mm2) with 32-directions/shell. DWI data were analyzed using diffusion kurtosis and bi-exponential modeling that provided measurements that included fractional anisotropy (FA), radial kurtosis, kurtosis anisotropy (KA), axial kurtosis, tortuosity, and permeability-diffusivity index (PDI). RESULTS:Significant longitudinal effects of brain development were observed for whole-brain average FA, KA, and PDI (all p?

SUBMITTER: Ryan MC 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5817010 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature