High-resolution diffusion magnetic resonance imaging and spatial-transcriptomic in developing mouse brain

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Biophysics
• Developmental Biology

Background:

• Brain development involves complex molecular and cellular processes.
• Microstructural changes occur throughout brain development.
• High-resolution diffusion MRI (dMRI) allows non-destructive investigation of these changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate postnatal mouse brain microstructural alterations using high-resolution dMRI.
• To integrate quantitative MRI metrics with spatial transcriptomics.
• To correlate gene expression with dMRI-derived microstructural changes.

Main Methods:

• Acquisition of multi-shell dMRI datasets at 32 µm isotropic resolution.
• Adaptation of the Allen Developing Mouse Brain Atlas (ADMBA) for data integration.
• Application of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI), Diffusion Kurtosis Imaging (DKI), and Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging (NODDI) models.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated differential evolution of fiber orientation distributions in white matter (WM) and gray matter (GM).
• Observed spatial correlation between nervous system-enriched gene expression and age-matched dMRI metrics.
• Acquired the highest spatial resolution dMRI datasets for postnatal mouse brains to date.

Conclusions:

• High-resolution dMRI effectively traces microstructural changes in developing mouse brains (WM and GM).
• Integration with spatial transcriptomics reveals genotype-phenotype correlations.
• This approach enhances understanding of molecular-level brain microstructure development.