Background: Rat model of reperfused partial liver infarction (RPLI) has been increasingly used in studying new diagnostics and therapeutics.
Purpose: To characterize the RPLI model using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), microangiography, and histopathology.
Material and Methods: RPLI was induced in eight rats by occluding hepatic inflow to the right liver lobe for 3 hours. MRI was performed at a 1.5T clinical scanner 6 hours after reperfusion to obtain T2-weighted (T2WI), T1-weighted (T1WI), contrast-enhanced (CE) T1WI, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) with apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) maps, T1-weighted dynamic contrast-enhanced (T1-DC) perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI), and T2*-weighted dynamic susceptibility contrast-enhanced (T2*-DSC) PWI images. Rats were sacrificed for microangiography and histomorphology. In vivo morphological and functional MRI parameters, including maximum initial slope (MIS), K value, relative blood flow (rBF), relative blood volume (rBV), time to peak (TTP), and mean transit time (MTT), were matched with postmortem findings.
Results: The infarcted lobe was conspicuous from normal liver with lower and higher signal intensity on T1WI (P=0.018) and T2WI (P=0.001), respectively. Contrast between infarcted and normal liver reversed on CE-T1WI after gadolinium injection. The infarction averaged 37.5% of total liver volume. DWI and ADC maps were able to detect subtle perfusion-related differences (P<0.05). With T1-DC-PWI, increased extravasation and vascular permeability were reflected by significantly greater MIS (P=0.034) and K value (P=0.014) in infarction. T2*-DSC-PWI showed lower rBF and rBV with shorter TTP and MTT in infarcted liver (P<0.05). In vivo MRI findings corresponded well with postmortem outcomes.
Conclusion: RPLI in rats could be characterized by multiparametric MRI and postmortem assessments, with insight into the no-reflow phenomenon, which implies its further application for preclinical assessments of new pharmaceutics.
