Insights into the brain using PET imaging: from cellular targets to systemic effects
The focus of this lecture is to illustrate that multi-modal approaches can help to understand how different cellular components of the brain are contributing to the PET signal. The disease entities addressed are neurodegenerative diseases and neuro-oncological disorders.
The introduction of single cell sorting after radiotracer injection has demonstrated in Alzheimer‘s disease and primary tauopathies that activated microglia plays a key role in the initial stages. Analyses of functional connectivity in MRI and of covariance in tau PET
demonstrated the spread of tau pathology along neuronal axons.
In the neuro-oncological part, the focus is on PET imaging with ligands binding to the 18kDa Trans-locator Protein (TSPO). It is overexpressed in high grade glioma as well as in activated microglia. Here advanced data analysis, histological characterization of human tissue samples and 3D histology with tissue clearing and lightsheet microscopy in mouse models as well as single cell sorting have been used to address multiple questions arising here.
Speaker:
Prof. Dr. Peter Bartenstein
Department of Nuclear Medicine, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Impressions
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