High-resolution glutamate-weighted mapping of in vivo mouse brain across age with chemical exchange saturation transfer MRI

Abstract Aging in the mammalian brain involves significant structural, functional, and metabolic changes, including a decrease in glutamate concentration. Glutamate-weighted chemical exchange saturation transfer (gluCEST) MRI provides a non-invasive method for mapping glutamate distribution with high spatial resolution. Collecting data from a large cohort of healthy mice aged 2 to 23 months, scanned in vivo at 17.2 T, we demonstrate that gluCEST can differentiate multiple brain regions, and intr