Neuroimaging Assessment of Spinal Cord Injury in Rodents

In vivo preclinical imaging of spinal cord injury (SCI) in rodent models is sought after for obtaining clinically relevant neuropatholocial information in translational research. The ability to noninvasively monitor the spatial and temporal evolution of injury response allows understanding and characterizing the injury model, identifying the surrogate markers of the lesion, and also objectively evaluating the rationale and efficacy of any potential therapy. Magnetic resonance neuroimaging of injured rodent SC is challenging, but yet extensive studies have demonstrated that it is also feasible and plays an indispensable role in longitudinal studies. It is possible to acquire high quality images from both rat and mouse with special considerations and hardware developments. This chapter is organized to summarize the current state of art in instrumentation in our laboratory, methods and procedures, and materials used to successfully perform magnetic resonance microscopy and to interpret the results obtained with different imaging modalities.