Correlating MR relaxation measurements with corresponding proteomic information provided by MALDI IMS

Abstract

The premise of this work is to understand the contrast variations seen in MRI in light of the proteomic composition of tissue. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is now widely used as a primary medical imaging method to visualize the internal structure and function of different tissues in human body. To date, what macromolecular components may be correlated with the contrast changes we seen in MR is not well understood. Here we explore whether variations in MR properties could be correlated with corresponding tissue macro-molecular changes as measured by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (MALDI IMS). We have developed methods to acquire high signal-to-noise ratio MR measurements on a rat head and generated the parametric M0, T1 and T2 maps along with it. Corresponding proteomic profile of sections of interest for the rat head were acquired using MALDI technique. Our current results provided initial support to our theoretical hypothesize that variations seen in MR properties could be correlated with corresponding macromolecular changes in tissue.