Perfusion dynamics in a mouse line of Parkinson’s Disease

Motivation: Parkinson disease patients show alterations in their vascular system, exhibiting lower perfusion than healthy subjects. Goal(s): Here, we harness a mouse model exhibiting extensive human α-syn deposition to investigate cerebral blood flow properties in PD. Approach: We use a novel setup enabling high resolution Pseudo-Continuous Arterial Spin Labelling, a non-invasive technique for perfusion mapping in-vivo without injection of contrast agentes. Results: We found that not only the PD mouse line but also their WT littermates have altered perfusion properties across the brain compared to control c57bl/6 mice. Impact: Our findings highlight the importance of accounting for these potential sources of variability in future work with these lines.