Manganese-enhanced Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the hippocampus in R6/1 Huntington's Disease mice.

Huntington's disease (HD) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease and manifests as a triad of motor, cognitive and psychiatric symptoms. The R6/1 transgenic mouse model of HD has proven to be a valuable tool in HD research as these mice show the progressive development of symptoms, comparable to the human condition. Of particular interest is evidence that young HD mice display cognitive defects prior to the onset of motor symptoms. Human imaging studies have shown that structural changes are observable in preclinical HD. Preliminary experiments have shown that HD brains are volumetrically altered by 18 weeks of age. We would like to extend those results by investigating whether our mouse model also develops structural changes early in disease progression, focussing on the hippocampus since it is the region implicated in learning and memory.

This experiment will perform manganese-enhanced MRI at 10-12 weeks. MEMRI has been used for tracing neuronal tracts and studying brain function in vivo. With the use of contrast enhancing agents, the sensitivity of MRI is greatly increased for detecting pathological changes. The manganese ion circulates to the brain and deposits in the hippocampus and other nuclei, which reflects the levels and pattern of neuro-activities in the animal.