MORPHOLOGICAL STUDIES OF THE MURINE HEART BASED ON PROBABILISTIC AND STATISTICAL ATLASES

摘要

MR imaging (MRI) has significant potential for quantifying cardiac function and dysfunction in the mouse. Recent advances in high-resolution cardiac MRI techniques have contributed to developing atlas-based approaches to describe anatomic structures and their function in normal and transgenic mice. This study directly compares morphological features of the mouse heart in its end-relaxed state based on constructed morphometric maps and atlases using Principal Component Analysis in C57BL/6J (n=8) and DBA (n=5) mouse strains. Comparing the constructed probabilistic atlases, a gradient probability exists for both strains in longitudinal locations from base to apex, and also shows increased variability in apical locations of both strains. Based on the statistical atlases, differences in size (49.8%), apical direction (15.6%), basal ventricular blood pool size (13.2%), and papillary muscle shape and position (17.2%) account for the most significant modes of shape variability for the left ventricle of the C57BL/6J mice. For DBA mice, differences in left ventricular size and direction (67.4%), basal size (15.7%), and position of papillary muscles (16.8%) account for significant variability. The right ventricles compared for each mouse strain yields variability in the position and size (85.1 and 68.3%), and basal and apical size and locations (12.3 and 31.6%) for C57BL/6J and DBA/2J mice, respectively.