Assessment of White Matter Changes using Quantitative T1ρ Mapping in an Open-Field Low-Intensity Blast Mouse Model of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI)

Author

Dina Moazamian
Shengwen Xie
Jiyo S. Athertya
Qingbo Tang
Roland R. Lee
Eric Y. Chang
Jeffrey M. Tomlin
Catherine E. Johnson, Missouri University of Science and TechnologyFollow
Jiang Du
Yajun Ma

Abstract

Blast-induced mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) occurs when shock waves travel through blood vessels and cerebrospinal fluid, leading to cerebral demyelination, which results in cognitive impairments and neuropsychiatric issues that impact quality of life. This study aims to evaluate myelin changes in white matter in mice with mTBI induced by an open-field low-intensity blast (LIB) using a newly implemented 3D adiabatic T1ρ prepared fast spin echo (Adiab-T1ρ-FSE) sequence for quantitative T1ρ MRI mapping. Thirty male C57BL/6 mice, including 15 mTBI and 15 sham controls, were scanned on a 3T Bruker MRI scanner. Luxol fast blue (LFB) staining was performed to assess myelin content differences between the mTBI and sham control groups. A significantly higher T1ρ value in the medial corpus callosum (MCC) was found in mTBI mice compared to controls (126.8 ± 2.5 ms vs. 129.8 ± 2.5 ms; p < 0.001), consistent with the reduced myelin observed in LFB staining (0.80 ± 0.14 vs. 1.02 ± 0.06; p = 0.004). Moreover, a significant negative correlation between T1ρ and histological myelin content measurements was observed (r = −0.57, p = 0.02). Our findings demonstrate that T1ρ is a promising biomarker for detecting mTBI-associated demyelination in the brain.

Recommended Citation

D. Moazamian and S. Xie and J. S. Athertya and Q. Tang and R. R. Lee and E. Y. Chang and J. M. Tomlin and C. E. Johnson and J. Du and Y. Ma, "Assessment of White Matter Changes using Quantitative T1ρ Mapping in an Open-Field Low-Intensity Blast Mouse Model of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI)," International Journal of Molecular Sciences, vol. 26, no. 12, article no. 5431, MDPI, Jun 2025.

The definitive version is available at https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26125431

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Publication Status

Open Access

Comments

National Institutes of Health, Grant 1S10 OD034302-01

Keywords and Phrases

MRI; mTBI; myelin loss; open-field LIB; T1ρ

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

1422-0067; 1661-6596

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Final Version

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 The Authors, All rights reserved.

Creative Commons Licensing

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Publication Date

01 Jun 2025