THE TREE OF LIFE (LEFT)

Jérémie Fouquet, Luc Tremblay, Réjean Lebel, Martin Lepage

Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The blood network, also called the vascular tree, stretches and branches for hundreds of kilometers to carry what is essential for the proper functioning of the brain. This image shows the cerebrovascular tree of a mouse. It's not a big mouse brain, but MRI can visualize the vessels that travel through it with great precision. Vessels thinner than a hair can be detected, all without danger to the animal. Such a resolution makes it possible to study the role of arteries and veins in the healthy brain as well as in a host of diseases. Some cancers, for example, cause new vessels to grow, to divert the nutrients they need, and Alzheimer’s disease is often accompanied or preceded by vascular disorders.

CEREBRAL STRINGS (right)

Michaël Bernier

Vascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging

The human brain is a complex machine fuelled by an intricate network of blood vessels. It has recently become clear that we need to better understand the involvement of the smallest vessels in this architecture if we seek to understand the origin of many cognitive impairments and their effects on brain function and health. However, mapping blood vessels is very difficult to do non-invasively in a clinical setting and it is limited in terms of spatial resolution, which impairs interpretability.

This image was created using very high resolution MRI after an injection of Ferumoxytol into the bloodstream. This iron-based supplement greatly enhances the contrast between tissues and blood vessels in the brain, allowing detailed segmentation of the vasculature. The image shows the axial point of view (looking down from the top of the head) of a single subject’s veins and arteries and was created using a combination of image processing and machine learning tools.

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March 7th, 2023

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