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Cholesterol of myelin is the determinant of gray‐white contrast in MRI of brain
Author(s) -
Koenig Seymour H.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
magnetic resonance in medicine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.696
H-Index - 225
eISSN - 1522-2594
pISSN - 0740-3194
DOI - 10.1002/mrm.1910200210
Subject(s) - myelin , white matter , magnetization transfer , contrast (vision) , nuclear magnetic resonance , cholesterol , chemistry , magnetic resonance imaging , physics , medicine , central nervous system , biochemistry , optics , radiology
The relative brightness of adult white matter in T 1 ‐weighted MRI arises from myelin, but the mechanisms responsible remain to be clarified. Koenig et al. [Magn. Reson. Med. 14 , 482 (1990)] conjectured that the cholesterol of myelin (∼ 30% of its lipid) was responsible. We present 1/ T 1 and magnetization transfer contrast imaging data [Wolff and Balaban, Magn. Reson. Med. 10 , 135 (1989)] on a model system— 50% lipid—50% water by weight, with the lipid one‐half phosphatidyl cholinc (PC) and one‐half cholesterol—and a control in which the lipid is all PC. The differences between the model and control samples mimic the myelin contribution to white matter in both experiments. © 1991 Academic Press, Inc.