MRI of animal models of developmental disorders and translation to human imaging

In order to understand the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to the specific brain alterations observed in immature newborn babies, preclinical studies on animal models mimicking clinical reality are mandatory and are ideally coupled with imaging modalities transferable to the human scenario. The availability of MRI techniques on both clinical and animal scanners allows this methodological transfer from bench to bedside. The aim of this review is to give an overview of the recent findings in MRI of animal models of developmental disorders and emphasize what we can learn from MRI on these models.

Progress in newborn medicine has allowed the survival of increasingly immature newborns that is often associated with specific morbidities. The brain in particular shows developmentally linked vulnerability leading to specific brain injury and subsequent developmental disorders. MRI delivers a large amount of anatomical, microstructural and functional information and has been widely used to monitor cerebral development and characterize the specificity of brain lesions in the immature brain in humans and animal models.

In this review, we will present the different animal models assessed by magnetic resonance techniques and the histopathological correlations observed, as well as the implications for human imaging.