Early development of human ganglionic eminences assessed in vitro by using 7.04 Tesla micro-MRI – a pilot study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Ganglionic eminences are temporary structures which appear during the 5(th) week post-fertilization on the floor of telencephalic vesicles and disappear until the 35(th) week of gestation. The aim of this descriptive study of morphological research is to depict the ganglionic eminences within the embryonic and early fetal brains by using micro-MRI. METHODS: Six human embryos and fetuses ranging from 21 mm crown-rump length CRL (9 gestational week GW) to 85 mm CRL (14 GW) were examined in vitro by micro-MRI. The investigation was performed with a Bruker BioSpec 70/16USR scanner (Bruker BioSpin MRI GmbH, Ettlingen, Germany) operating at 7.04 Tesla. RESULTS: We describe the morphological characteristics of the ganglionic eminences at different gestational ages. The acquisition parameters were modified for each subject in order to obtain an increased spatial resolution. The remarkable spatial resolution of 27 μm/voxel allows visualization of millimetric structures of the developing brain on high quality micro-MR images. CONCLUSION: In our study we give the description of the ganglionic eminences within the embryonic and early fetal brains by using micro-MRI, which, to the best of our knowledge, have not been previously documented in literature. Micro-MRI provides accurate images, which are comparable with the histological slices.