• K Hikishima, K Ando, Y Komaki, K Kawai, R Yano, T Inoue, T Itoh, M Yamada, S Momoshima, H J Okano, and H Okano.
• Department of Physiology, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan; Central Institute for Experimental Animals, Kawasaki, Japan.
• Neuroscience. 2015 Aug 6;300:585-92.

AbstractMovement dysfunction in Parkinson's disease (PD) is caused by the degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra (SN). Here, we established a method for voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and automatic tissue segmentation of the marmoset monkey brain using a 7-T animal scanner and applied the method to assess DA degeneration in a PD model, 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-treated animals, with tyrosine-hydroxylase staining. The most significant decreases of local tissue volume were detected in the bilateral SN of MPTP-treated marmoset brains (-53.0% in right and -46.5% in left) and corresponded with the location of DA neurodegeneration found in histology (-65.4% in right). In addition to the SN, the decreases were also confirmed in the locus coeruleus, and lateral hypothalamus. VBM using 7-T MRI was effective in detecting volume loss in the SN of the PD-model marmoset. This study provides a potential basis for the application of VBM with ultra-high field MRI in the clinical diagnosis of PD. The developed method may also offer value in automatic whole-brain evaluation of structural changes for the marmoset monkey.Copyright © 2015 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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