Time-dependent Diffusion Mri in the Neocortex of Aquaporin-4 Deficient and Normal Mice in the Resting State at 7t

The goal of this work is to investigate whether and how non-invasive MRI methods can contribute to studying the role of Aquaporin-4 in water transport in the brain. Aquaporin 4 (AQP-4) is the predominant water channel protein in the neocortex and cerebellum. It is concentrated in the astrocyte end-feet membranes, adjacent to blood vessels to facilitate fast, selective and activity dependent water efflux from cortex to subarachnoidal space through the end-feet membranes [1]. We use time-dependent diffusion MRI to investigate how complete depletion of AQP-4 effects water transport in the mice brain. We focus on measurements during the resting state, which will serve as a reference for future work using fMRI.