# Development and Application of Muscle Diffusion Tensor MRI

> **NIH NIH R01** · CARLE FOUNDATION · 2021 · $388,851

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
We will advance the quantitative understanding of how human muscle structure impacts function, in
health and disease; and we will share the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) resources used to
generate this knowledge freely with the muscle research community. At every level of biological
complexity, muscle structure significantly influences muscle function. These properties include the
intermediate-scale relationships known as muscle architecture: the shape and orientation of a muscle’s fibers
with respect to its mechanical line of action. Our understanding of how muscle architecture affects muscle
function remains incomplete, however, and our tools for studying these relationships are insufficiently
developed. As a result, there are critical gaps in our understanding of how pathologically altered muscle
architecture in diseases such as Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) impairs in vivo, whole-muscle function
and exacerbates these muscles’ risk of further injury. To provide this knowledge, we will advance the
technology and application of quantitative MRI techniques such as diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI), overcoming
several remaining technical challenges and developing an improved understanding of muscle architecture and
function. Aim 1 is to validate MRI methods for quantifying muscle architecture in a broad range of states of
muscle health and disease, at rest and during contraction. We will validate DTI fiber-tracking algorithms for
quantifying the architecture of healthy, atrophied, inflamed, and fat-infiltrated muscles, and we will develop and
validate methods that combine DTI fiber-tracking and rapidly acquired 3D images to quantify muscle
architecture during contraction. Aim 2 is to advance the quantitative understanding of the functional impact of
muscle architecture in healthy and dystrophic human muscle. We will quantify the relationships among muscle
architecture and force generation, strain development, and the sufficiency of peripheral oxygen supply. The
outcome of this work will be a newly identified physiologic mechanism of injury in DMD and the scientific
foundation for using advanced structural and functional MR imaging to evaluate and guide therapy. Aim 3 is
distribute data and software for MRI-based muscle structure-function analysis. A whole-body imaging dataset
will be made publically available. Also, a software toolkit for processing these data will be made freely available
and supported through collaborations. Overall, we will develop optimal methods for analyzing DTI data from
healthy and diseased muscles and integrating these data with those available from other MRI sequences. We
will create new knowledge about the relationships between muscle structure and function and how they are
impacted by disease. By developing these advances into a freely available dataset and toolkit, we will enable
musculoskeletal researchers worldwide to apply these methods in applied physiology and translational studies.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10400490
- **Project number:** 7R01AR073831-03
- **Recipient organization:** CARLE FOUNDATION
- **Principal Investigator:** BRUCE M. DAMON
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $388,851
- **Award type:** 7
- **Project period:** 2019-05-07 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10400490

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10400490, Development and Application of Muscle Diffusion Tensor MRI (7R01AR073831-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10400490. Licensed CC0.

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