Quantitative mouse renal perfusion using arterial spin labeling.

Information on renal perfusion is essential for the diagnosis and prognosis of kidney function. Quantification using gadolinium chelates is limited as a result of filtration through renal glomeruli and safety concerns in patients with kidney dysfunction. Arterial spin labeling MRI is a noninvasive technique for perfusion quantification that has been applied to humans and animals. However, because of the low sensitivity and vulnerability to motion and susceptibility artifacts, its application to mice has been challenging. In this article, mouse renal perfusion was studied using flow-sensitive alternating inversion recovery at 7 T. Good perfusion image quality was obtained with spin-echo echo-planar imaging after controlling for respiratory, susceptibility and fat artifacts by triggering, high-order shimming and water excitation, respectively. High perfusion was obtained in the renal cortex relative to the medulla, and signal was absent in scans carried out post mortem. Cortical perfusion increased from 397 ± 36 (mean ± standard deviation) to 476 ± 73 mL/100 g/min after switching from 100% oxygen to carbogen with 95% oxygen and 5% carbon dioxide. The perfusion in the medulla was 2.5 times lower than that in the cortex and changed from 166 ± 41 mL/100 g/min under oxygen to 203 ± 40 mL/100 g/min under carbogen. T1 decreased in both the cortex (from 1570 ± 164 to 1377 ± 72 ms, p < 0.05) and medulla (from 1788 ± 107 to 1573 ± 144 ms, p < 0.05) under carbogen relative to 100% oxygen. The results showed the potential of the use of ASL for perfusion quantification in mice and in models of renal diseases.