Cerebellar cortical atrophy in experimental
autoimmune encephalomyelitis
Source: NeuroImage
2006 Sep;32(3):1016-1023.
Author: MacKenzie-Graham A, Tinsley MR, Shah KP, Aguilar C, Strickland LV, Boline J, Martin M, Morales L, Shattuck DW, Jacobs RE, Voskuhl RR, Toga AW. PubMed ID: 16806982
Abstract:
Brain atrophy measured by MRI is an important correlate with clinical
disability and disease duration in multiple sclerosis (MS). Unfortunately,
neuropathologic mechanisms which lead to this grey matter
atrophy remain unknown. The objective of this study was to determine
whether brain atrophy occurs in the mouse model, experimental
autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE). Postmortem high-resolution T2-
weighted magnetic resonance microscopy (MRM) images from 32
mouse brains (21 EAE and 11 control) were collected. A minimum
deformation atlas was constructed and a deformable atlas approach
was used to quantify volumetric changes in neuroanatomical structures.
A significant decrease in the mean cerebellar cortex volume in
mice with late EAE (48–56 days after disease induction) as compared
to normal strain, gender, and age-matched controls was observed.
There was a direct correlation between cerebellar cortical atrophy and
disease duration. At an early time point in disease, 15 days after disease
induction, cerebellar white matter lesions were detected by both
histology and MRM. These data demonstrate that myelin-specific
autoimmune responses can lead to grey matter atrophy in an otherwise
normal CNS. The model described herein can now be used to
investigate neuropathologic mechanisms that lead to the development
of gray matter atrophy in this setting.