scholarly journals Corrigendum: Axon Diameters and Myelin Content Modulate Microscopic Fractional Anisotropy at Short Diffusion Times in Fixed Rat Spinal Cord

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Shemesh
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Noam Shemesh

Mapping tissue microstructure accurately and noninvasively is one of the frontiers of biomedical imaging. Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is at the forefront of such efforts, as it is capable of reporting on microscopic structures orders of magnitude smaller than the voxel size by probing restricted diffusion. Double Diffusion Encoding (DDE) and Double Oscillating Diffusion Encoding (DODE) in particular, are highly promising for their ability to report on microscopic fractional anisotropy (μFA), a measure of the pore anisotropy in its own eigenframe, irrespective of orientation distribution. However, the underlying correlates of μFA have insofar not been studied. Here, we extract μFA from DDE and DODE measurements at ultrahigh magnetic field of 16.4T with the goal of probing fixed rat spinal cord microstructure. We further endeavor to correlate μFA with Myelin Water Fraction (MWF) derived from multiexponential T2 relaxometry, as well as with literature-based spatially varying axon diameter. In addition, a simple new method is presented for extracting unbiased μFA from three measurements at different b-values. Our findings reveal strong anticorrelations between μFA (derived from DODE) and axon diameter in the distinct spinal cord tracts; a moderate correlation was also observed between μFA derived from DODE and MWF. These findings suggest that axonal membranes strongly modulate μFA, which—owing to its robustness toward orientation dispersion effects—reflects axon diameter much better than its typical FA counterpart. μFA varied when measured via oscillating or blocked gradients, suggesting selective probing of different parallel path lengths and providing insight into how those modulate μFA metrics. Our findings thus shed light into the underlying microstructural correlates of μFA and are promising for future interpretations of this metric in health and disease.


Author(s):  
V. Kriho ◽  
H.-Y. Yang ◽  
C.-M. Lue ◽  
N. Lieska ◽  
G. D. Pappas

Radial glia have been classically defined as those early glial cells that radially span their thin processes from the ventricular to the pial surfaces in the developing central nervous system. These radial glia constitute a transient cell population, disappearing, for the most part, by the end of the period of neuronal migration. Traditionally, it has been difficult to definitively identify these cells because the principal criteria available were morphologic only.Using immunofluorescence microscopy, we have previously defined a phenotype for radial glia in rat spinal cord based upon the sequential expression of vimentin, glial fibrillary acidic protein and an intermediate filament-associated protein, IFAP-70/280kD. We report here the application of another intermediate filament-associated protein, IFAP-300kD, originally identified in BHK-21 cells, to the immunofluorescence study of radial glia in the developing rat spinal cord.Results showed that IFAP-300kD appeared very early in rat spinal cord development. In fact by embryonic day 13, IFAP-300kD immunoreactivity was already at its peak and was observed in most of the radial glia which span the spinal cord from the ventricular to the subpial surfaces (Fig. 1). Interestingly, from this time, IFAP-300kD immunoreactivity diminished rapidly in a dorsal to ventral manner, so that by embryonic day 16 it was detectable only in the maturing macroglial cells in the marginal zone of the spinal cord and the dorsal median septum (Fig. 2). By birth, the spinal cord was essentially immuno-negative for this IFAP. Thus, IFAP-300kD appears to be another differentiation marker available for future studies of gliogenesis, especially for the early stages of radial glia differentiation.


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