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Updated: Jul 5, 2025
Using Optical Coherence Tomography and Optokinetic Response As Structural and Functional Visual System Readouts in Mice and Rats
Published on: January 10, 2019
Detection of acute and early-delayed radiation-induced changes in the white matter of the rat brain based on
Ksenia Achkasova1, Liudmila Kukhnina1, Alexander Moiseev2
1Research Institute of Experimental Oncology and Biomedical Technologies, Privolzhsky Research Medical University, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.
Abstract:
Detection of radiation-induced changes of the brain white matter is important for brain neoplasms repeated surgery. We investigated the influence of irradiation on the scattering properties of the white matter using optical coherence tomography (OCT). Healthy Wistar rats undergone the irradiation of the brain right hemisphere. At seven time points from the irradiation procedure (2-14 weeks), an ex vivo OCT study was performed with subsequent calculation of attenuation coefficient values in the corpus callosum followed by immunohistochemical analysis. As a result, we discovered acute and early-delayed changes characterized by the edema of different severity, accompanied by a statistically significant decrease in attenuation coefficient values. In particular, these changes were found at 2 weeks after irradiation in the irradiated hemisphere, while at 6- and 12-week time points they affected both irradiated and contralateral hemisphere. Thus, radiation-induced changes occurring in white matter during the first 3 months after irradiation can be detected by OCT.
