MR-Based Statistical Atlas of the Göttingen Minipig Brain

Thedomestic pig is increasingly being used as an experimental model for brain imaging studies with positron emission tomography (PET). The recording of radiotracer uptake by PET gives functional and physiological information, but with poor spatial resolution. To date, anatomical regions of interest in pig brain have been defined in MR images obtained for each individual animal, because of the lack of a standard stereotaxic coordinate system for the pig brain. In order to define a stereotaxic coordinate system, we coregistered T1-weighted MR images from 22 male Göttingen minipigs and obtained a statistically defined surface rendering of the average minipig brain in which stereotaxic zero is defined by the position of the pineal gland. The average brain is now used as a target for registration of dynamic PET data, so that time-activity curves can be extracted from standard volumes of interest. In order to define these volumes, MR images from each individual pig were manually segmented into a total of 34 brain structures, including cortical regions, white matter, caudate and putamen, ventricular system, and cerebellum. The mean volumes of these structures had variances in the range of 10-20%. The 34 brain volumes were transformed into the common coordinate system and then used to generate surface renderings with probabilistic threshold greater than 50%. This probabilistic threshold gave nearly quantitative recovery of the mean volumes in native space. The probabilistic volumes in stereotaxic space are now being used to extract time-radioactivity curves from dynamic PET recordings.

[1]  A. Gjedde,et al.  Relationship between residual cerebral blood flow and oxygen metabolism as predictive of ischemic tissue viability: sequential multitracer positron emission tomography scanning of middle cerebral artery occlusion during the critical first 6 hours after stroke in pigs. , 2000, Journal of neurosurgery.

[2]  A. Gjedde,et al.  Quantitative PET analysis of regional cerebral blood flow and glucose and oxygen metabolism in response to fenfluramine in living porcine brain , 1998, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[3]  R. Bajcsy,et al.  A computerized system for the elastic matching of deformed radiographic images to idealized atlas images. , 1983, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[4]  C. Pelizzari,et al.  Accurate Three‐Dimensional Registration of CT, PET, and/or MR Images of the Brain , 1989, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[5]  D M Hadley,et al.  Human cranial CSF volumes measured by MRI: sex and age influences. , 1987, Magnetic resonance imaging.

[6]  J. Marcilloux,et al.  Preliminary results of a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study of the pig brain placed in stereotaxic conditions , 1993, Neuroscience Letters.

[7]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  MRI-PET Correlation in Three Dimensions Using a Volume-of-Interest (VOI) Atlas , 1991, Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

[8]  C. R Bjarkam,et al.  Oriented sectioning of irregular tissue blocks in relation to computerized scanning modalities: Results from the domestic pig brain , 2000, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[9]  D J Brooks,et al.  Comparison of Methods for Analysis of Clinical [11C]Raclopride Studies , 1996, Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

[10]  Alan C. Evans,et al.  Anatomical-Functional Correlation Using an Adjustable MRI-Based Region of Interest Atlas with Positron Emission Tomography , 1988, Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism.

[11]  H. K. Huang,et al.  Mapping Brain Function To Brain Anatomy , 1988, Medical Imaging.

[12]  A. Gjedde,et al.  FDOPA metabolism in the adult porcine brain: influence of tracer circulation time and VOI selection on estimates of striatal DOPA decarboxylation , 2001, Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

[13]  M. Torrens Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268 , 1990 .

[14]  T. Yoshikawa Atlas of the brains of domestic animals , 1968 .

[15]  M. Raichle,et al.  A Stereotactic Method of Anatomical Localization for Positron Emission Tomography , 1985, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[16]  A. Gjedde,et al.  Uptake and distribution of a new SSRI, NS2381, studied by PET in living porcine brain , 1999, European Neuropsychopharmacology.

[17]  Albert Gjedde,et al.  Cerebral Blood Flow and Blood Volume Measured by Magnetic Resonance Imaging Bolus Tracking After Acute Stroke in Pigs: Comparison With [15O]H2O Positron Emission Tomography , 2000 .

[18]  H. Damasio,et al.  A computed tomographic guide to the identification of cerebral vascular territories. , 1983, Archives of neurology.

[19]  J. Marcilloux,et al.  Stereotaxic atlas of the pig brain , 1999, Brain Research Bulletin.

[20]  D. Collins,et al.  Automatic 3D Intersubject Registration of MR Volumetric Data in Standardized Talairach Space , 1994, Journal of computer assisted tomography.

[21]  J. M. Ollinger,et al.  Positron Emission Tomography , 2018, Handbook of Small Animal Imaging.

[22]  Jan Corfixen Sørensen,et al.  The DaNeX Study of Embryonic Mesencephalic, Dopaminergic Tissue Grafted to a Minipig Model of Parkinson's Disease: Preliminary Findings of Effect of MPTP Poisoning on Striatal Dopaminergic Markers 1 , 2000, Cell transplantation.

[23]  T. Greitz,et al.  Adjustable computerized stereotaxic brain atlas for transmission and emission tomography. , 1983, AJNR. American journal of neuroradiology.

[24]  D. Kennedy,et al.  The young adult human brain: an MRI-based morphometric analysis. , 1994, Cerebral cortex.

[25]  Ruzena Bajcsy,et al.  Three-Dimensional Computerized Brain Atlas For Elastic Matching: Creation And Initial Evaluation , 1988, Medical Imaging.

[26]  A. Gjedde,et al.  Normalization of markers for dopamine innervation in striatum of MPTP‐lesioned miniature pigs with intrastriatal grafts , 2001, Acta neurologica Scandinavica.