Cerebral radiation injury and changes in the brain tissues of rat models with glioma

Cerebral radiation injury (CRI) is a crucial and common complication of radiotherapy for patients with glioma. In the study, we aimed to investigate the changes in the diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) and the histological changes in the brain tissues of mice models with glioma. After the tumor cell seeding, there was an obvious increase in the proportion of cellular nucleus in the brain tissues of rat models with glioma. There was also an obvious increase in the microvascular density (MVD) in the brain tissues of rat models with glioma. There was a linear correlation between the mean apparent diffusion coefficient value and the proportion of cellular nucleus in the brain tissues of rat models with glioma (P < 0.05). There was also a linear correlation between the maximal relative cerebral volume and MVD count in the brain tissues of rat models with glioma (P < 0.01). Therefore, the changes in the DWI and PWI are related with the histological changes in the brain tissues of glioma, and the finding may help us make a distinction between postoperative recurrent glioma and CRI.