Structural insights from high-resolution diffusion tensor imaging and tractography of the isolated rat hippocampus.

The hippocampus is a critical structure for learning and memory formation injured by diverse neuropathologies such as epilepsy or Alzheimer’s disease. Recently, clinical investigations have attempted to use diffusion tensor MRI as a more specific surrogate marker for hippocampal damage. To first better understand the tissue architecture of healthy hippocampal regions, this study characterized 10 rat hippocampi with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) at 50-microm in-plane image resolution using a 14.1-T magnet. Chemical fixation of the dissected and straightened rat hippocampus provided a simple, effective way to reduce partial volume effects when segmenting hippocampal regions and improved mean signal-to-noise per unit time (e.g. 50.6+/-4.4 at b=1250 s/mm2 in 27 min). Contrary to previous reports that water diffusion is homogeneous throughout the nervous system, statistically different mean diffusivities were observed (e.g. 0.238+/-0.054 and 0.318+/-0.084 microm2/ms for the molecular and granule cell layers respectively) (ANOVA, P