The Spatial Distribution of Water Components with Similar T(2) May Provide Insight into Pathways for Large Molecule Transportation in the Brain

PURPOSE: Although there is no lymphatic system in the central nervous system (CNS), there seems to be a mechanism to remove macro molecules from the brain. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and interstitial fluid (ISF) are thought to be parts of this pathway, but the details are not known. In this study, MR signal of the extracellular water was decomposed into components with distinct T(2)’s, to obtain some information about distribution of waste material in the brain. METHODS: Images were acquired using a Curr, Purcell, Meiboom, Gill (CPMG) imaging sequence. In order to reduce T(1) contamination and the signal oscillation, hard pulses were used as refocusing pulses. The signal was then decomposed into many T(2) components using non-negative least squares (NNLS) in pixel-by-pixel basis. Finally, a color map was generated by assigning different color for each T(2) component, then adding them together. RESULTS: From the multi-echo images, it was possible to decompose the decaying signal into separate T(2) components. By adjusting the color table to create the color map, it is possible to visualize the extracellular water distribution, as well as their T(2) values. Several observation points include: (1) CSF inside ventricles has very long T(2) (∼2 s), and seems to be relatively homogeneous, (2) subarachnoid CSF also have long T(2), but there are short T(2) component at the brain surface, at the surface of dura, at the blood vessels in the subarachnoid space, etc., (3) in the brain parenchyma, short T(2) components (longer than intracellular component but shorter than CSF) exists along the white matter, in the choroid plexus, etc. These can be considered as distribution of macromolecules (waste materials) in the brain. CONCLUSION: From T(2) component analysis it is possible to obtain some insight into pathways for the transport of large molecules in the CNS, where no lymphatic system is present.