Magnetic Resonance Insights

There appear to be species differences among the effects of gene mutations related to familial Alzheimer’s disease on the brain during aging. To gain a better understanding of the effects of the Swedish mutation of amyloid precursor protein and the mutant form of human presenilin 1 on mice, commercially available mice from Jackson Laboratory were studied. Three dimensional T2*-weighted imaging was used to monitor the size of brains of APP/PS1 mice monthly, from 6 to 13 months of age. No significant difference was measured in the size of the medial-lateral width, dorsal-ventral height, rostral-caudal length or the volume of the APPSwe/ PS1 mouse brain. Faster and higher-resolution imaging methods are needed to accurately determine if small volume or shape changes occur in mouse brains with age or gene mutations.