Relating quantitative 7T MRI across cortical depths to cytoarchitectonics, gene expression and connectomics: a framework for tracking neurodegenerative disease

McColgan, P.; helbling, S.; Vaculciakov, L.; Pine, K.; Wagstyl, K.; Attar, F. M.; Edwards, L. J.; Papoutsi, M.; Wei, Y.; van den Heuvel, M.; Tabrizi, S. J.; Rees, G.; Weiskopf, N.

doi:10.1101/2020.02.05.935080

bioRxiv · 10.1101/2020.02.05.935080

Relating quantitative 7T MRI across cortical depths to cytoarchitectonics, gene expression and connectomics: a framework for tracking neurodegenerative disease

McColgan, P.·helbling, S.·Vaculciakov, L.·Pine, K.·Wagstyl, K.·Attar, F. M.·Edwards, L. J.·Papoutsi, M.·Wei, Y.·van den Heuvel, M.·Tabrizi, S. J.·Rees, G.·Weiskopf, N.

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Abstract

Cortical layer-specific ultra-high field MRI has the potential to provide anatomically precise biomarkers and mechanistic insights into neurodegenerative disease. Here we compare cortical layer-specificity for a 7T multi-parametric mapping (MPM) 500m whole brain acquisition to the von Economo and Big Brain post-mortem histology atlases. We also investigate the relationship between 7T MPMs, layer-specific gene expression and Huntingtons disease related genes, using the Allen Human Brain atlas. Finally we link MPM cortical depth measures with white matter connections using high-fidelity diffusion tractography from a 300mT/m Connectom MRI system. We show that R2* across cortical depths is highly correlated with layer-specific cell number, cell staining intensity and gene expression. Furthermore white matter connections were highly correlated with grey matter R1 and R2* across cortical depths. These findings demonstrate the potential of combining 7T MPMs, gene expression and white matter connections to provide an anatomically precise framework for tracking neurodegenerative disease.

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McColgan, P., helbling, S., Vaculciakov, L., Pine, K., Wagstyl, K., Attar, F. M., Edwards, L. J., Papoutsi, M., Wei, Y., van den Heuvel, M., Tabrizi, S. J., Rees, G., Weiskopf, N.. 2020-02-05. Relating quantitative 7T MRI across cortical depths to cytoarchitectonics, gene expression and connectomics: a framework for tracking neurodegenerative disease. https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.02.05.935080

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