THE USE OF RESTING STATE FUNCTIONAL MRI TO STUDY FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN A MOUSE MODEL OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event THE USE OF RESTING STATE FUNCTIONAL MRI TO STUDY FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN A MOUSE MODEL OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Disha Shah1*, Elisabeth Jonckers1, Christian Bigot1, Greetje Vanhoutte1, Marleen Verhoye1 and Annemie Van Der Linden1 1 Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, Belgium Objectives: The goal of this study is to assess functional connectivity (FC) in an APPPS1 mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) using resting state functional MRI (rsfMRI). Background: AD pathology is characterized by amyloid pathology, the formation of tau-fibrils and neurodegeneration. Amyloid pathology is hypothesized to be the driving force behind AD. RsfMRI in human research has shown that amyloid pathology and altered FC occur in the same brain regions (1), suggesting a possible relation between these two events. Human rsfMRI studies are limited in studying correlations, as AD manifests many pathological alterations. Using a mouse model of amyloidosis, e.g. the APPPS1 mice (2), facilitates the assessment of a correlation between FC alterations and amyloid. The hypothesis of this study is that old APPPS1 mice show FC alterations in the brain, which could be related to amyloidosis. RsfMRI data of 10 male APPswePS1 mice and 9 male control C57BL6 mice of (18.9 ±1.3) months old were acquired on a 7T Pharmascan (Bruker BioSpin, Germany) using a gradient echo EPI sequence. For the analysis we have opted for independent component analysis (ICA), a technique that divides the blood-oxygenation-level-dependent (BOLD) signal into a number of components, each consistent with a certain time course of the BOLD-signal. For every component a map is obtained consisting of regions of which the time course is correlated to the time course of the component i.e. a functional connectivity map. Results: ICA revealed differences in FC between the APPPS1 and control groups. FC was deteriorated between the retrosplenial cortex and the hippocampus, which are regions associated with spatial memory. Conclusion: These results are in accordance with literature (2), reporting diminished spatial memory in the APPPS1 mice. The observation of altered FC in the same regions that show amyloid plaques suggest that these two events are related. The next step would be to study mice longitudinally to assess the exact relation between FC changes and amyloid pathology. Acknowledgements The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° 278850 (INMiND). The APPPS1 mice were kindly provided by the Department of molecular genetics, University of Antwerp, Belgium. References 1) Sheline et al., (2010), Biol. psych. 67 (6): 584–587. 2) Radde et al., (2006), EMBO reports 7: 940-946. Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, resting state functional MRI, functional connectivity, APPPS1 mice, Amyloid Conference: Belgian Brain Council, Liège, Belgium, 27 Oct - 27 Oct, 2012. Presentation Type: Poster Presentation Topic: Higher Brain Functions in health and disease: cognition and memory Citation: Shah D, Jonckers E, Bigot C, Vanhoutte G, Verhoye M and Van Der Linden A (2012). THE USE OF RESTING STATE FUNCTIONAL MRI TO STUDY FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY IN A MOUSE MODEL OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE. Conference Abstract: Belgian Brain Council. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2012.210.00045 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 03 Sep 2012; Published Online: 12 Sep 2012. * Correspondence: Miss. Disha Shah, Bio-Imaging Lab, University of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium, disha.shah@ua.ac.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Disha Shah Elisabeth Jonckers Christian Bigot Greetje Vanhoutte Marleen Verhoye Annemie Van Der Linden Google Disha Shah Elisabeth Jonckers Christian Bigot Greetje Vanhoutte Marleen Verhoye Annemie Van Der Linden Google Scholar Disha Shah Elisabeth Jonckers Christian Bigot Greetje Vanhoutte Marleen Verhoye Annemie Van Der Linden PubMed Disha Shah Elisabeth Jonckers Christian Bigot Greetje Vanhoutte Marleen Verhoye Annemie Van Der Linden Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.