Human meningeal lymphatic vessels can be imaged by inversion recovery alternate ascending/descending directional navigation (ALADDIN)

Abstract

Recent studies showed meningeal lymphatic vessels significantly contribute to the clearance mechanisms of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and the immune system in central nervous system. In this study, we tried to image human dural meningeal lymphatic vessels (mLVs) using inversion recovery alternate ascending/descending directional navigation (IR-ALADDIN). The IR-ALADDIN imaging technique clearly showed not only structural dural mLVs, but also the flow direction of dural mLVs, and it can be applied for studying many lymphatic vessels in human neurological diseases.