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“OBJECTIVE: We hypothesized that structural details that have not been described previously would be revealed in
cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) through the use of high-field magnetic resonance and confocal microscopy. The structural details of CCMs excised from patients were sought by examination with high-field magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and correlated with confocal microscopy of the same specimens. Novel features of CCM structure are outlined, including methodological limitations, venues for future research, and possible clinical implications.
METHODS: CCM lesions excised from 4 patients were fixed in 2% paraformaldehyde and subjected to high-resolution MRI at 9.4 or 14.1-T by spin echo and gradient recalled echo methods. Histological AZD6244 in vitro validation of angioarchitecture was conducted on thick sections of CCM lesions using fluorescent probes to endothelium under confocal microscopy.
RESULTS: Images of excised human CCM lesions were acquired with proton density-weighted, T1-weighted, T2-weighted spin echo, and T2*-weighted gradient recalled echo MRI. These images revealed large “”bland”" regions with thin-walled
caverns and “”honeycombed”" regions with notable capillary proliferation and smaller caverns surrounding larger caverns. Proliferating capillaries and caverns of various sizes were also associated with the walls of apparent larger blood vessels in the lesions. Similar features were confirmed within thick sections of CCMs by confocal microscopy. MRI A-769662 relaxation times in different regions of interest suggested the presence of different states of blood breakdown products in areas with apparent angiogenic proliferative activity.
CONCLUSION: High-field MRI techniques demonstrate novel features of CCM angioarchitecture, visible at near histological resolution, including
regions with apparently Liothyronine Sodium different biological activity. These preliminary observations will motivate future research, correlating lesion biological and clinical activity with features of MRI at higher field strength.”
“OBJECTIVE: We sought to assess the appearance of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCM) on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans in murine Ccm1 and Ccm2 gene knockout models and to develop a technique of lesion localization for correlative pathobiological studies.
METHODS: Brains from 18 CCM mutant mice (Ccm1 (+/-) Trp53 (-/-) and Ccm2 (+/-) Trp53 (-/-)) and 28 control animals were imaged by gradient recalled echo (T2*)-weighted MRI scans at 4.7- and 14.1-T in vivo and/or ex vivo. After MRI scanning, the brains were removed and stained with hematoxylin and eosin, and cells were laser-microdissected for molecular biological studies.
RESULTS: T2*-weighted MRI scans of brains in vivo and ex vivo revealed lesions similar to human CCMs in mutant mice, but not in control animals.