Diffusion tensor imaging in the developing human cerebellum with histologic correlation

Diffusion tensor imaging was performed on 24 freshly aborted human fetuses with gestational age ranging from 20 to 37 weeks to observe age-related fractional anisotropy changes in cerebellar cortex and cerebellar white matter. Quantitative immunohistochemical analysis was performed for glial fibrillary acidic protein in each fetus molecular layer of cerebellar cortex and myelin basic protein expression was quantified in myelinated areas of the middle cerebellar peduncles. The cerebellar cortical fractional anisotropy reached its peak value at 28 weeks, and then decreased gradually until 37 weeks. The time course of glial fibrillary acidic protein expression paralleled that of fractional anisotropy in the cerebellar cortex from 20 weeks of gestation upto the gestational age at which the fractional anisotropy reached its peak value (28 weeks). In the middle cerebellar peduncles, the fractional anisotropy increased continuously upto 37 weeks of gestational age and showed a significant positive correlation with myelin basic protein immunostained fibers. The fractional anisotropy quantification can be used to assess the migrational and maturation changes during the development of the human fetal cerebellum supported by the immunohistochemical analysis.