T2 Mapping for Noninvasive Assessment of Interstitial Edema in Acute Cardiac Allograft Rejection in a Mouse Model of Heterotopic Heart Transplantation.

Objectives: Heart transplantation (HTX) in mice is used to characterize gene-deficient mice and to test new treatment strategies. The purpose was to establish noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging techniques in mice to monitor pathophysiological changes of the allograft during rejection. Materials and Methods: Magnetic resonance imaging was performed at baseline and days 1 and 6 after isogenic (n = 10, C57BL/6) and allogenic (n = 12, C57BL/6 to BALB/c) heterotopic HTX on a 7 T small animal scanner. Respiratory- and electrocardiogram-gated multislice multi-echo spin echo sequences were acquired, and parameter maps of T2 relaxation time were generated. T2 times in septal, anterior, lateral, and posterior myocardial segments as well as global T2 times were calculated and compared between groups. At day 7 animals were sacrificed and graft pathology was assessed by semiquantitative regional analysis and correlated with magnetic resonance imaging results. Results: Myocardial T2 relaxation time was significantly increased in allogenic (33.4 +/- 0.1 ms) and isogenic cardiac grafts (31.8 +/- 1.8 ms) on day 1 after HTX compared with healthy donor hearts at baseline (23.1 +/- 0.3 ms, P

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