Preliminary MRI Findings for Manganese Chloride as a Novel Radiation Countermeasure Against Acute Radiation Sickness in Mice

Motivation: In the event of a nuclear accident, emergency personnel need a radiation protectant before going into a radiation contaminated zone for operational or rescue purposes. Goal(s): This study is focusing on whether or not MRI can be used to assess the efficacy of radiation countermeasures longitudinally. Approach: B6D2F1/J mice were injected with MnCl2 and evaluated using brain MRI, compared to histological tissue. We are establishing the techniques and analysis pipelines to follow irradiated animals over time. Results: Preliminary results are depicting less damage in the MnCl2 treated mice as compared to irradiated mice give only the vehicle for both MRI and histological tissue. Impact: For radiation research being conducted in animals, serial MR imaging can provide important information on health status. Establishing MRI techniques and postprocessing pipelines, plus tools for histological correlation, MRI will become a key tool to evaluate animals in radiation research.