Iron and senile plaques deposition in transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer's disease and influence on MR T2 relaxation times / 中华神经科杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe senile plaque and iron deposition in cortex and hippocampus of the Alzheimer's disease ( AD ) transgenic mice and investigate their influence on T2 relaxation time.Method All AD transgeic mice were divided into three groups young group(2,4 months), adult group (6,8,10 months), old group (12,14,16 months), and C57BL/6J mice were as control and were scanned in order by using 4.7 T MR system.Regions of interest (ROI) corresponding to cortex, hippocampus,thalamus, striatum were manually drawn on MR images and T2 MR relaxation times of each ROI were calculated.After MR scan, these mice were decapitated and stained for iron and senile palques.The number of plaque and iron, plaque burden, iron load in cortex and hippocampus were acquired using image pro plus software.Result T2 relaxation times of each group were as following wild type ( cortex (49.5 ± 2.1 ) ms,hippocampus (51.6 ± 1.1 ) ms ); young ( cortex ( 49.7 ± 0.5 ) ms, hippocampus ( 50.7 ± 0.7 ) ms ); adult (cortex(47.2 ±0.8) ms, hippocampus(47.7 ±0.9) ms) and old (cortex(44.6 ±0.8) ms, hippocampus (45.3 ±0.4)ms).T2 relaxation times in cortex and hippocampus of each group had statistical differences ( cortex F = 18.620, P ＜ 0.01; hippocampus F = 67.925, P ＜ 0.01 ); Compared with young group and wild type mice, T2 relaxation times in corex and hippocampus of adult group mice were decreased significantly.At the same time, T2 relaxation times in old group mice were reduced compared with adult group ( Adult vs young cortex q =4.284, P ＜0.01, hippocampus q =7.902, P ＜0.01; adult vs wild type cortex q =4.424, P＜0.05, hippocampus q = 11.450, P ＜0.01; old w adult cortex q =4.812, P ＜0.01,hippocampus q = 7.034, P ＜ 0.01 ).Histochemical staining for senile plaques found that senile plaques was deposited as early as 4 month.Iron deposition in hippocampus and cortex were detected by perl-DAB as early as 6 months of age, and there was an overall increase in number and load of plaques and iron with age.A positive correlation was observed between plaque burden and iron load ( r = 0.931, P ＜ 0.01 ).At the same time, plaque burden and iron load were negatively correlated with T2 relaxation times ( plaque burden and T2 relaxation times r = - 0.884, P ＜ 0.01; iron load and T2 relaxation times r = - 0.827, P ＜ 0.01 ).Conclusion The changes of T2 relaxation time in AD transgenic mice are attributed to iron and senile plaques.MR T2 relaxation time is a sensitive marker to diagnosis for AD and screen antidementia drugs.