Positron Emission Tomography Imaging for In Vivo Measuring of Myelin Content in the Lysolecithin Rat Model of Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neuroinflammatory disease with expanding axonal and neuronal degeneration and demyelination in the central nervous system, leading to motor dysfunctions, psychical disability, and cognitive impairment during MS progression. Positron emission tomography (PET) is an imaging technique able to quantify in vivo cellular and molecular alterations.

Radiotracers with affinity to intact myelin can be used for in vivo imaging of myelin content changes over time. It is possible to detect either an increase or decrease in myelin content, what means this imaging technique can detect demyelination and remyelination processes of the central nervous system. In this protocol we demonstrate how to use PET imaging to detect myelin changes in the lysolecithin rat model, which is a model of focal demyelination lesion (induced by stereotactic injection) (i.e., a model of multiple sclerosis disease). ¹¹C-PIB PET imaging was performed at baseline, and 1 week and 4 weeks after stereotaxic injection of lysolecithin 1% in the right striatum (4 µL) and corpus callosum (3 µL) of the rat brain, allowing quantification of focal demyelination (injection site after 1 week) and the remyelination process (injection site at 4 weeks).

Myelin PET imaging is an interesting tool for monitoring in vivo changes in myelin content which could be useful for monitoring demyelinating disease progression and therapeutic response.