TY - JOUR
T1 - 7 Tesla MRI Followed by Histological 3D Reconstructions in Whole-Brain Specimens
AU - Alkemade, Anneke
AU - Pine, Kerrin
AU - Kirilina, Evgeniya
AU - Keuken, Max C
AU - Mulder, Martijn J
AU - Balesar, Rawien
AU - Groot, Josephine M
AU - Bleys, Ronald L A W
AU - Trampel, Robert
AU - Weiskopf, Nikolaus
AU - Herrler, Andreas
AU - Möller, Harald E
AU - Bazin, Pierre-Louis
AU - Forstmann, Birte U
N1 - Copyright © 2020 Alkemade, Pine, Kirilina, Keuken, Mulder, Balesar, Groot, Bleys, Trampel, Weiskopf, Herrler, Möller, Bazin and Forstmann.
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Post mortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies on the human brain are of great interest for the validation of in vivo MRI. It facilitates a link between functional and anatomical information available from MRI in vivo and neuroanatomical knowledge available from histology/immunocytochemistry. However, linking in vivo and post mortem MRI to microscopy techniques poses substantial challenges. Fixation artifacts and tissue deformation of extracted brains, as well as co registration of 2D histology to 3D MRI volumes complicate direct comparison between modalities. Moreover, post mortem brain tissue does not have the same physical properties as in vivo tissue, and therefore MRI approaches need to be adjusted accordingly. Here, we present a pipeline in which whole-brain human post mortem in situ MRI is combined with subsequent tissue processing of the whole human brain, providing a 3-dimensional reconstruction via blockface imaging. To this end, we adapted tissue processing procedures to allow both post mortem MRI and subsequent histological and immunocytochemical processing. For MRI, tissue was packed in a susceptibility matched solution, tailored to fit the dimensions of the MRI coil. Additionally, MRI sequence parameters were adjusted to accommodate T1 and T2∗ shortening, and scan time was extended, thereby benefiting the signal-to-noise-ratio that can be achieved using extensive averaging without motion artifacts. After MRI, the brain was extracted from the skull and subsequently cut while performing optimized blockface imaging, thereby allowing three-dimensional reconstructions. Tissues were processed for Nissl and silver staining, and co-registered with the blockface images. The combination of these techniques allows direct comparisons across modalities.
AB - Post mortem magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies on the human brain are of great interest for the validation of in vivo MRI. It facilitates a link between functional and anatomical information available from MRI in vivo and neuroanatomical knowledge available from histology/immunocytochemistry. However, linking in vivo and post mortem MRI to microscopy techniques poses substantial challenges. Fixation artifacts and tissue deformation of extracted brains, as well as co registration of 2D histology to 3D MRI volumes complicate direct comparison between modalities. Moreover, post mortem brain tissue does not have the same physical properties as in vivo tissue, and therefore MRI approaches need to be adjusted accordingly. Here, we present a pipeline in which whole-brain human post mortem in situ MRI is combined with subsequent tissue processing of the whole human brain, providing a 3-dimensional reconstruction via blockface imaging. To this end, we adapted tissue processing procedures to allow both post mortem MRI and subsequent histological and immunocytochemical processing. For MRI, tissue was packed in a susceptibility matched solution, tailored to fit the dimensions of the MRI coil. Additionally, MRI sequence parameters were adjusted to accommodate T1 and T2∗ shortening, and scan time was extended, thereby benefiting the signal-to-noise-ratio that can be achieved using extensive averaging without motion artifacts. After MRI, the brain was extracted from the skull and subsequently cut while performing optimized blockface imaging, thereby allowing three-dimensional reconstructions. Tissues were processed for Nissl and silver staining, and co-registered with the blockface images. The combination of these techniques allows direct comparisons across modalities.
U2 - 10.3389/fnana.2020.536838
DO - 10.3389/fnana.2020.536838
M3 - Article
C2 - 33117133
VL - 14
SP - 536838
JO - Frontiers in Neuroanatomy
JF - Frontiers in Neuroanatomy
SN - 1662-5129
ER -