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. 2011;6(7):e20653.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0020653. Epub 2011 Jul 1.

Diffusion-weighted MRI and quantitative biophysical modeling of hippocampal neurite loss in chronic stress

Peter Vestergaard-Poulsen  1 , Gregers Wegener, Brian Hansen, Carsten R Bjarkam, Stephen J Blackband, Niels C Nielsen, Sune N Jespersen
Affiliations

Diffusion-weighted MRI and quantitative biophysical modeling of hippocampal neurite loss in chronic stress

Peter Vestergaard-Poulsen et al. PLoS One. 2011.

Abstract

Chronic stress has detrimental effects on physiology, learning and memory and is involved in the development of anxiety and depressive disorders. Besides changes in synaptic formation and neurogenesis, chronic stress also induces dendritic remodeling in the hippocampus, amygdala and the prefrontal cortex. Investigations of dendritic remodeling during development and treatment of stress are currently limited by the invasive nature of histological and stereological methods. Here we show that high field diffusion-weighted MRI combined with quantitative biophysical modeling of the hippocampal dendritic loss in 21 day restraint stressed rats highly correlates with former histological findings. Our study strongly indicates that diffusion-weighted MRI is sensitive to regional dendritic loss and thus a promising candidate for non-invasive studies of dendritic plasticity in chronic stress and stress-related disorders.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Neurite density maps of stressed and control rat hippocampi.
(A) stressed rats, (B) control rats. The color bar shows the normalized neurite density. Note: the highest red intensity on the color bar refers to lowest neurite density.
Figure 2
Figure 2. CA3 and CA1 normalized neurite density of stratum oriens (SO), cell layer (CL), stratum radiatum (SR) and stratum lacunosum moleculare layer (LM).
Individual data from controls rats (green dots) and stressed rats (red) are shown in conjunction with the mean values and standard deviation (black). *P<0.05.
Figure 3
Figure 3. DG normalized neurite density of granule cell layer (GL) and molecular layer (ML).
Individual data from controls rats (green dots) and stressed rats (red) are shown in conjunction with the mean values and standard deviation (black). *P<0.05.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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