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Original Paper
Dev Neurosci 2009;31:487–496
DOI: 10.1159/000229500
Correlation of Diffusion Tensor Imaging
with Histology in the Developing Human
Frontal Cerebrum
Richa Trivedi
a
Nuzhat Husain
d
Ram K.S. Rathore
g
Sona Saksena
a
Savita Srivastava
d
Gyanendra K. Malik
f
Vinita Das
e
Mandakini Pradhan
b
Chandra M. Pandey
c
Rakesh K. Gupta
a
Departments of
a
Radiodiagnosis,
b
Medical Genetics and
c
Biostatistics, Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of
Medical Sciences, and Departments of
d
Pathology,
e
Obstetrics and Gynecology, and
f
Pediatrics, CSM Medical
University, Lucknow, and
g
Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India
tween FA values and percentage area of GFAP expression in
fetuses ^28 weeks of GA (r = 0.56, p = 0.01). FA values showed
a significant positive correlation with the percentage area of
NF expression in the intermediate zone (r = 0.54, p = 0.05). A
significant positive correlation was also observed between
FA and the number of NSE-positive cells per mm
2
in the GMx
(r = 0.76, p ! 0.01) and subplate (r = 0.59, p = 0.03) zones. The
results of our study suggest that the FA can be used as non-
invasive marker of neurodevelopmental events in the frontal
lobe of human fetal brain. Copyright © 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel
Introduction
The development of the CNS is a complex and long-
lasting process [1, 2] . The understanding of brain devel-
opment during fetal and neonatal periods is a topic of
major importance because of the preeminence of neuro-
logical disorders in infants. The awesome complexity of
the human brain begins after the essential external form
is established by events such as neural tube formation and
prosencephalic development. The events that follow are
Key Words
Diffusion tensor imaging Fetal brain Fractional
anisotropy Immunohistochemical analysis
Abstract
Transient early cerebral laminar organization resulting from
normal developmental events has been revealed in human
beings through histology and imaging studies. DTI studies
have postulated that the fractional anisotropy (FA)-based
differentiation of different laminar structures reflects both
differing cellular density over the glial fibers and fiber align-
ment in respective regions. The aim of this study was to
correlate FA values in these transient zones with histology.
Brain DTI was performed on 50 freshly aborted human fe-
tuses with gestational ages (GA) ranging from 12 to 42 weeks.
Regions of interest were placed on the cortical plate, sub-
plate, intermediate and germinal matrix (GMx) zones of the
frontal lobe to quantify FA values. Glial fibrillary acidic pro-
tein (GFAP), neurofilament (NF) and neuron-specific enolase
(NSE) immunohistochemical analyses were performed for
the cortical plate, intermediate zone and GMx. In the cortical
plate, a significant positive correlation was observed be-
Received: September 2, 2008
Accepted after revision: May 18, 2009
Published online: July 20, 2009
Prof. Rakesh K. Gupta, MD
MR Section, Department of Radiodiagnosis
Sanjay Gandhi Postgraduate Institute of Medical Sciences
Lucknow 226014 (India)
Tel. +91 522 266 8700, ext. 2599, Fax +91 522 266 8017, E-Mail rgupta@sgpgi.ac.in
© 2009 S. Karger AG, Basel
0378–5866/09/0316–0487$26.00/0
Accessible online at:
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