Journal Article

Preliminary feasibility study on DTI to assess the early brain injury in germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage rats

Jin, Jian, Qin, Chi, Li, Haiyang, Feng, Xiang, Zhao, Xin, Guo, Chenxi, Zhang, Xiaoan, Li, Yue, Li, Huixian, Cheng, Meiying, Zhang, Bohao, Mu, Ronghao

2025

Overview

To evaluate the feasibility and efficacy of diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) for detecting early brain microstructure alterations in germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage (GMH-IVH) rat model. This study used a postnatal day 5 (PND 5) rat model of GMH-IVH. T2-weighted imaging and DTI were performed during acute (6 h and 24 h) and subacute (3d and 7d) phases after GMH-IVH. Four DTI parameters including fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusion (MD), axial diffusion (AD) and radial diffusion (RD) were collected in 9 specific brain regions to assess the brain microstructure alterations. Early and long-term neurological function tests were evaluated. Transcriptome sequencing analysis was also performed to investigate possible underlying mechanisms. Regional abnormalities after GMH-IVH were observed in T2-weighted images that showed significant hypointense in striatum region which close to the germinal matrix. DTI parameters also observed changes in striatum region in GMH-IVH. Alterations in other regions of brain including hippocampus, thalamus, external capsule and motor cortex also noted, which were associated with the abnormalities observed in behavioral experiments. Long-term behavioral tests show that compared to sham group, rats in GMH-IVH group caused abnormal motor function. In addition, at 24 h after GMH-IVH, transcriptome analysis results showed that the highly expressed differential genes encode hemoglobin components and down-regulate neurodevelopment-related pathways. DTI imaging allows the early assessment of neurological alteration in GMH-IVH rat pups, and providing great value in evaluating long-term behavioral deficits.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group UK,Nature Publishing Group,Nature Portfolio
• Subject: 631/378 / 631/378/1595 / 631/378/1689 / 631/378/2571 / Animals / Anisotropy / Biomarkers / Brain - diagnostic imaging / Brain - pathology / Brain Injuries - diagnostic imaging / Brain Injuries - pathology / Brain injury / Brain research / Cerebral Hemorrhage - diagnostic imaging / Cerebral Hemorrhage - pathology / Cortex (motor) / Diffusion tensor image / Diffusion Tensor Imaging - methods / Disease Models, Animal / Euthanasia / Feasibility Studies / Germinal matrix-intraventricular hemorrhage / Hemoglobin / Hemorrhage / Humanities and Social Sciences / Laboratory animals / Magnetic resonance imaging / Male / Motor and cognitive impairment / multidisciplinary / Neostriatum / Neuroimaging / Pathological changes / Premature birth / Rats / Rats, Sprague-Dawley / Science / Science (multidisciplinary) / Sequence analysis / Transcriptomes / Traumatic brain injury