TY - JOUR A1 - Andelovic, Kristina A1 - Winter, Patrick A1 - Jakob, Peter Michael A1 - Bauer, Wolfgang Rudolf A1 - Herold, Volker A1 - Zernecke, Alma T1 - Evaluation of plaque characteristics and inflammation using magnetic resonance imaging JF - Biomedicines N2 - Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease of large and medium-sized arteries, characterized by the growth of atherosclerotic lesions (plaques). These plaques often develop at inner curvatures of arteries, branchpoints, and bifurcations, where the endothelial wall shear stress is low and oscillatory. In conjunction with other processes such as lipid deposition, biomechanical factors lead to local vascular inflammation and plaque growth. There is also evidence that low and oscillatory shear stress contribute to arterial remodeling, entailing a loss in arterial elasticity and, therefore, an increased pulse-wave velocity. Although altered shear stress profiles, elasticity and inflammation are closely intertwined and critical for plaque growth, preclinical and clinical investigations for atherosclerosis mostly focus on the investigation of one of these parameters only due to the experimental limitations. However, cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has been demonstrated to be a potent tool which can be used to provide insights into a large range of biological parameters in one experimental session. It enables the evaluation of the dynamic process of atherosclerotic lesion formation without the need for harmful radiation. Flow-sensitive MRI provides the assessment of hemodynamic parameters such as wall shear stress and pulse wave velocity which may replace invasive and radiation-based techniques for imaging of the vascular function and the characterization of early plaque development. In combination with inflammation imaging, the analyses and correlations of these parameters could not only significantly advance basic preclinical investigations of atherosclerotic lesion formation and progression, but also the diagnostic clinical evaluation for early identification of high-risk plaques, which are prone to rupture. In this review, we summarize the key applications of magnetic resonance imaging for the evaluation of plaque characteristics through flow sensitive and morphological measurements. The simultaneous measurements of functional and structural parameters will further preclinical research on atherosclerosis and has the potential to fundamentally improve the detection of inflammation and vulnerable plaques in patients. KW - atherosclerosis KW - mouse models KW - wall shear stress KW - pulse wave velocity KW - arterial elasticity KW - inflammation KW - magnetic resonance imaging Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228839 SN - 2227-9059 VL - 9 IS - 2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lawitschka, Anita A1 - Brunmair, Matthias A1 - Bauer, Dorothea A1 - Zubarovskaya, Natalia A1 - Felder-Puig, Rosemarie A1 - Strahm, Brigitte A1 - Bader, Peter A1 - Strauss, Gabriele A1 - Albert, Michael A1 - Luettichau, Irene von A1 - Greinix, Hildegard A1 - Wolff, Daniel A1 - Peters, Christina T1 - Psychometric properties of the Activities Scale for Kids-performance after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in adolescents and children BT - Results of a prospective study on behalf of the German-Austrian-Swiss GVHD Consortium JF - Wiener klinische Wochenschrift N2 - Background The psychometric properties of an instrument, the Activity Scale for Kids-performance (ASKp), were assessed which was proposed to capture physical functioning after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Additionally, this multicenter observational prospective study investigated the influence of clinical correlates focusing on chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD). Methods Patient-reported ASKp, clinician-reported Karnofsky/Lansky status (KPS/PSS), patient characteristics and cGVHD details were assessed of 55 patients with a median age of 12 years at baseline after day +100 post-HSCT and every 3 months during the next 18 months. The psychometric properties were evaluated and ASKp and KPS/PSS status was compared using ANOVAS and multiple regression models. Results The German version of the ASKp showed good psychometric properties except for ceiling effects. Discrimination ability of the ASKp was good regarding the need for devices but failed to predict cGVHD patients. Both the ASKp and the KPS/PSS were associated with patients after adoptive cell therapy being in need for devices, suffering from overlap cGVHD and from steroid side effects but not with patients’ age and gender. In contrast to the KPS/PSS the ASKp only showed significant differences after merging moderate and severe cGHVD patients when comparing them to No-cGVHD (F = 4.050; p = 0.049), being outperformed by the KPS/PSS (F = 20.082; p < 0.001). Conclusion The ASKp showed no clear advantages compared to KPS/PSS even though economical and patients’ effort was higher. Further application range may be limited through ceiling effects. Both should be taken into consideration. Therefore, the results may not support the usage of ASKp after HSCT and rather suggest KPS/PSS, both patient and clinician reported. KW - physical functioning KW - cancer patients KW - AYAs KW - GVHD Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-281100 VL - 133 IS - 1-2 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Andelovic, Kristina A1 - Winter, Patrick A1 - Kampf, Thomas A1 - Xu, Anton A1 - Jakob, Peter Michael A1 - Herold, Volker A1 - Bauer, Wolfgang Rudolf A1 - Zernecke, Alma T1 - 2D Projection Maps of WSS and OSI Reveal Distinct Spatiotemporal Changes in Hemodynamics in the Murine Aorta during Ageing and Atherosclerosis JF - Biomedicines N2 - Growth, ageing and atherosclerotic plaque development alter the biomechanical forces acting on the vessel wall. However, monitoring the detailed local changes in wall shear stress (WSS) at distinct sites of the murine aortic arch over time has been challenging. Here, we studied the temporal and spatial changes in flow, WSS, oscillatory shear index (OSI) and elastic properties of healthy wildtype (WT, n = 5) and atherosclerotic apolipoprotein E-deficient (Apoe\(^{−/−}\), n = 6) mice during ageing and atherosclerosis using high-resolution 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Spatially resolved 2D projection maps of WSS and OSI of the complete aortic arch were generated, allowing the pixel-wise statistical analysis of inter- and intragroup hemodynamic changes over time and local correlations between WSS, pulse wave velocity (PWV), plaque and vessel wall characteristics. The study revealed converse differences of local hemodynamic profiles in healthy WT and atherosclerotic Apoe\(^{−/−}\) mice, and we identified the circumferential WSS as potential marker of plaque size and composition in advanced atherosclerosis and the radial strain as a potential marker for vascular elasticity. Two-dimensional (2D) projection maps of WSS and OSI, including statistical analysis provide a powerful tool to monitor local aortic hemodynamics during ageing and atherosclerosis. The correlation of spatially resolved hemodynamics and plaque characteristics could significantly improve our understanding of the impact of hemodynamics on atherosclerosis, which may be key to understand plaque progression towards vulnerability. KW - atherosclerosis KW - mouse KW - 4D flow MRI KW - aortic arch KW - flow dynamics KW - WSS KW - mapping KW - PWV KW - plaque characteristics Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-252164 SN - 2227-9059 VL - 9 IS - 12 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Winter, Patrick M. A1 - Andelovic, Kristina A1 - Kampf, Thomas A1 - Hansmann, Jan A1 - Jakob, Peter Michael A1 - Bauer, Wolfgang Rudolf A1 - Zernecke, Alma A1 - Herold, Volker T1 - Simultaneous measurements of 3D wall shear stress and pulse wave velocity in the murine aortic arch JF - Journal of Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance N2 - Purpose Wall shear stress (WSS) and pulse wave velocity (PWV) are important parameters to characterize blood flow in the vessel wall. Their quantification with flow-sensitive phase-contrast (PC) cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR), however, is time-consuming. Furthermore, the measurement of WSS requires high spatial resolution, whereas high temporal resolution is necessary for PWV measurements. For these reasons, PWV and WSS are challenging to measure in one CMR session, making it difficult to directly compare these parameters. By using a retrospective approach with a flexible reconstruction framework, we here aimed to simultaneously assess both PWV and WSS in the murine aortic arch from the same 4D flow measurement. Methods Flow was measured in the aortic arch of 18-week-old wildtype (n = 5) and ApoE\(^{−/−}\) mice (n = 5) with a self-navigated radial 4D-PC-CMR sequence. Retrospective data analysis was used to reconstruct the same dataset either at low spatial and high temporal resolution (PWV analysis) or high spatial and low temporal resolution (WSS analysis). To assess WSS, the aortic lumen was labeled by semi-automatically segmenting the reconstruction with high spatial resolution. WSS was determined from the spatial velocity gradients at the lumen surface. For calculation of the PWV, segmentation data was interpolated along the temporal dimension. Subsequently, PWV was quantified from the through-plane flow data using the multiple-points transit-time method. Reconstructions with varying frame rates and spatial resolutions were performed to investigate the influence of spatiotemporal resolution on the PWV and WSS quantification. Results 4D flow measurements were conducted in an acquisition time of only 35 min. Increased peak flow and peak WSS values and lower errors in PWV estimation were observed in the reconstructions with high temporal resolution. Aortic PWV was significantly increased in ApoE\(^{−/−}\) mice compared to the control group (1.7 ± 0.2 versus 2.6 ± 0.2 m/s, p < 0.001). Mean WSS magnitude values averaged over the aortic arch were (1.17 ± 0.07) N/m\(^2\) in wildtype mice and (1.27 ± 0.10) N/m\(^2\) in ApoE\(^{−/−}\) mice. Conclusion The post processing algorithm using the flexible reconstruction framework developed in this study permitted quantification of global PWV and 3D-WSS in a single acquisition. The possibility to assess both parameters in only 35 min will markedly improve the analyses and information content of in vivo measurements. KW - 4D flow KW - pulse wave velocity KW - wall shear stress KW - radial KW - self-navigation KW - mouse KW - aortic arch KW - atherosclerosis KW - mice KW - flow KW - plaque KW - CMR KW - quantification KW - microscopy Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-259152 VL - 23 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Lüffe, Teresa M. A1 - D'Orazio, Andrea A1 - Bauer, Moritz A1 - Gioga, Zoi A1 - Schoeffler, Victoria A1 - Lesch, Klaus-Peter A1 - Romanos, Marcel A1 - Drepper, Carsten A1 - Lillesaar, Christina T1 - Increased locomotor activity via regulation of GABAergic signalling in foxp2 mutant zebrafish – implications for neurodevelopmental disorders JF - Translational Psychiatry N2 - Recent advances in the genetics of neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) have identified the transcription factor FOXP2 as one of numerous risk genes, e.g. in autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). FOXP2 function is suggested to be involved in GABAergic signalling and numerous studies demonstrate that GABAergic function is altered in NDDs, thus disrupting the excitation/inhibition balance. Interestingly, GABAergic signalling components, including glutamate-decarboxylase 1 (Gad1) and GABA receptors, are putative transcriptional targets of FOXP2. However, the specific role of FOXP2 in the pathomechanism of NDDs remains elusive. Here we test the hypothesis that Foxp2 affects behavioural dimensions via GABAergic signalling using zebrafish as model organism. We demonstrate that foxp2 is expressed by a subset of GABAergic neurons located in brain regions involved in motor functions, including the subpallium, posterior tuberculum, thalamus and medulla oblongata. Using CRISPR/Cas9 gene-editing we generated a novel foxp2 zebrafish loss-of-function mutant that exhibits increased locomotor activity. Further, genetic and/or pharmacological disruption of Gad1 or GABA-A receptors causes increased locomotor activity, resembling the phenotype of foxp2 mutants. Application of muscimol, a GABA-A receptor agonist, rescues the hyperactive phenotype induced by the foxp2 loss-of-function. By reverse translation of the therapeutic effect on hyperactive behaviour exerted by methylphenidate, we note that application of methylphenidate evokes different responses in wildtype compared to foxp2 or gad1b loss-of-function animals. Together, our findings support the hypothesis that foxp2 regulates locomotor activity via GABAergic signalling. This provides one targetable mechanism, which may contribute to behavioural phenotypes commonly observed in NDDs. KW - comparative genomics KW - molecular neuroscience Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-264713 VL - 11 ER -