Brain meeting: Evgeniya Kirilina

Brain meeting

In the human brain, iron is indispensable for vital cerebral processes like myelination, neurotransmitter synthesis, energy metabolism, and immune response. Yet, iron accumulations also contribute to neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease.  Therefore, methods to detect iron agglomeration biomarkers are extremely important to identify early signs of neurodegeneration. 
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is the method of choice for in vivo studies of the iron distribution in the human brain. The use of quantitative relaxation and susceptibility measurements provide a wealth of information on both the quantity and distribution of iron, due to local magnetic perturbations. It can potentially access iron dispersions down to the cellular level and provide unique information on the iron chemistry.
Full exploitation of this wealth of information requires an in-depth knowledge of cellular iron distribution and the implications to spin physics. Herein, new light is shed on these dependencies by combining in vivo and post mortem MRI with advanced quantitative iron histology and relaxation theory. Two examples are selected to demonstrate how knowledge on MR contrast mechanisms can be employed for the development of sensitive and specific biomarkers of cellular iron distribution. 
The first example is a study in superficial white matter, where iron is accumulated in oligodendrocytes and potentially in the short association fibres. It is shown that iron in superficial white matter is not homogeneously distributed across the brain, but accumulated in iron deposits in U-fibre-rich frontal, temporal and parietal association areas. This observation is assigned to higher fibre density or late myelination.
In the second study, dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra are mapped. This information is a first step towards a specific in vivo biomarker for the density of dopaminergic neurons and may therefore provide a future diagnostic for Parkinson’s disease.

There will be coffee, tea and cake in the conservatory directly after the talk.