Assessment of ferritin content in multiple sclerosis brains using temperature‐induced R2 changes

• Published in: Magnetic resonance in medicine Vol. 79; no. 3; pp. 1609 - 1615
• Main Authors: Birkl, Christoph, Carassiti, Daniele, Hussain, Fariha, Langkammer, Christian, Enzinger, Christian, Fazekas, Franz, Schmierer, Klaus, Ropele, Stefan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Hoboken Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.03.2018
• Subjects: Basal ganglia; Brain; Diamagnetism; Ferritin; Ganglia; Histology; Homeostasis; Iron; iron mapping MRI; Lesions; Magnetic permeability; Magnetic resonance imaging; magnetic susceptibility; Multiple sclerosis; Myelin; Neurological diseases; post mortem brain; Quantitative analysis; Substantia alba; T cell receptors; Temperature dependence; Temperature effects; U‐fibers
• ISSN: 0740-3194; 1522-2594; 1522-2594
• DOI: 10.1002/mrm.26780

Purpose Current MRI techniques cannot reliably assess iron content in white matter due to the confounding diamagnetic effect of myelin. The purpose of this study was to validate with histology a novel iron mapping technique that uses the temperature dependency of the paramagnetic susceptibility in multiple sclerosis (MS) brains, where white matter has been reported to show significant variations in iron content. Methods We investigated post mortem brain tissue from three MS patients and one control subject. Temperature‐dependent R2* relaxometry was performed between 4°C and 37°C. The resulting temperature coefficient ( TcR2*) maps were compared with immunohistochemical stains for ferritin light chain. Results Good agreement between TcR2* maps and ferritin staining was found by way of visual comparison and quantitative analysis. The highest iron concentrations were detected at the edge of MS lesions and in the basal ganglia. For all regions, except the subcortical U‐fibers, there was a significant negative correlation between the TcR2* values and the ferritin count. Conclusion This study provides further evidence that TcR2* may be a reliable measure of white matter iron content due to the elimination of myelin‐induced susceptibility changes and is well suited for further research into neurological diseases with distortions of the iron homeostasis. Magn Reson Med 79:1609–1615, 2018. © 2017 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine.