TY  - JOUR
A1  - Edwards, Luke J.
A1  - McColgan, Peter
A1  - Helbling, Saskia
A1  - Zarkali, Angeliki
A1  - Vaculčiaková, Lenka
A1  - Pine, Kerrin J.
A1  - Dick, Fred
A1  - Weiskopf, Nikolaus
T1  - Quantitative MRI maps of human neocortex explored using cell type-specific gene expression analysis
T2  - Cerebral Cortex
N2  - Quantitative magnetic resonance imaging (qMRI) allows extraction of reproducible and robust parameter maps. However, the connection to underlying biological substrates remains murky, especially in the complex, densely packed cortex. We investigated associations in human neocortex between qMRI parameters and neocortical cell types by comparing the spatial distribution of the qMRI parameters longitudinal relaxation rate (equation ImEquation1), effective transverse relaxation rate (equation ImEquation2), and magnetization transfer saturation (MTsat) to gene expression from the Allen Human Brain Atlas, then combining this with lists of genes enriched in specific cell types found in the human brain. As qMRI parameters are magnetic field strength-dependent, the analysis was performed on MRI data at 3T and 7T. All qMRI parameters significantly covaried with genes enriched in GABA- and glutamatergic neurons, i.e. they were associated with cytoarchitecture. The qMRI parameters also significantly covaried with the distribution of genes enriched in astrocytes (equation ImEquation3 at 3T, equation ImEquation4 at 7T), endothelial cells (equation ImEquation5 and MTsat at 3T), microglia (equation ImEquation6 and MTsat at 3T, equation ImEquation7 at 7T), and oligodendrocytes and oligodendrocyte precursor cells (equation ImEquation8 at 7T). These results advance the potential use of qMRI parameters as biomarkers for specific cell types.
KW  - hMRI
KW  - isocortex
KW  - magnetic resonance imaging
KW  - myelin
KW  - relaxometry
Y1  - 2022
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/75680
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-756802
SN  - 1047-3211
VL  - 33
IS  - 9
SP  - 5704
EP  - 5716
PB  - Oxford Univ. Press
CY  - Oxford
ER  -