Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 13, 2025

Assessing Iron Deposition in the Brains of 5xFAD Mice by Perls'/DAB Staining
Published on: May 23, 2025
Quantitative susceptibility mapping to evaluate brain iron deposition and its correlation with physiological
Xin Li1, Dayong Jin1, Yinhu Zhu1
1Department of Radiology, Xi'an Daxing Hospital, Xi'an, China.
Background:
Regional excessive iron overload is pernicious to motor functions and cognitive functioning of the brain. The aim of this research was to utilize quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) to inspect brain iron accumulation in patients with hypertension (HP), and to evaluate whether it is correlated with physiological parameters.
Methods:
Thirty-one HP and 31 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HC) were included. All participants underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and QSM data were obtained. Differences in brain iron deposition in deep gray matter nuclei of participants were compared between HP and HC. The correlations between iron deposition, body mass index (BMI), maximum systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were analyzed.
Results:
The HP group showed increased susceptibility values in the caudate nucleus (CA), putamen (PU), globus pallidus (GP), and dorsal thalamus (TH), compared with the HC group. There was a significant positive correlation between BMI and the susceptibility values in the dentate nucleus (DN); the maximum SBP and DBP were positively correlated with magnetic susceptibility of the CA, PU, GP, and TH, respectively.
Conclusions:
These results are indicative of the role of overload brain iron in deep brain gray matter nuclei in HP and suggest that HP is associated with excess brain iron in certain deep gray matter regions.

