Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2018, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy HAF © 2013 Vol. V, No. 1s ISSN: 2283-3927 l Aim of EDEN 2020 project is the development of a steerable catheter for CED system in glioblastoma therapy. The VET group is involved in realization and validation of the proper animal model. For surgical planning purpose a Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) of white matter tracts in the sheep is necessary to identify the target points useful for the catheter introduction. The analysis of the sheep brain under a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) is required to understand any alterations due to the catheter introduction and to fluids injection during CED administration. Animals were treated in accordance with the European Communities Council directive (86/609/EEC), to the laws and regulations on animal welfare enclosed in D.L.G.S. 26/2014 A total of five 70 kg female, one year old, sheep were used for the study. All animals, under general anesthesia, underwent to Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) acquisition. MRI scanner used was Philips Ingenia 1.5 Tesla system. Once the DTI imaging were acquired the animals were euthanased, sheep brain was collected and samples of white matter tracts obtained with disposable biopsy punches of 1.5-2 mm of diameter. The samples were fixed, stained in Osmium tetroxide (OsO4) and then embedded with two different protocols (cold curing vs thermal curing) in resin for the Focused Ion Beam (FIB) SEM analyses. All the DTI images were uploaded to TrackVis software and major white matter fiber tracts analysed. Corticospinal tract, visual radiation, fornix and fronto-occipital fasciculus were identified. Corticospinal tract (Figure 1) was identified as major white matter tract in sheep brain and useful as target area for the research aims. For the SEM analysis the thermal protocol was recognised as better curing methods for the research purpose than cold curing one.The conclusions are missing while waiting for the data to be processed. The research is connected with researches of human medicine to improve the Glioblastoma Multiforme therapy. Acknowledgment: the project has received funding from the European Union’s EU Research and Innovation programme Horizon 2020 (no 688279). Keywords Sheep, brain, animal model, DTI, SEM. CORRESPONDING AUTHOR Davide Danilo Zani davide.zani@unimi.it JOURNAL HOME PAGE riviste.unimi.it/index.php/haf Sheep brain atlas creation. Diffusion tensor imaging and Scanning electron microscope in sheep brain analysis M. Trovatelli1, A. Bernardini2, Va Pieri3, F. Acocella1, S. Brizzola4, D.D. Zani*4 1 Department of Health, Animal Science and Food Safety, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy. 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom . 3 Neuroradiology Unit, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University and IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Via Olgettina 58-60, 20132, Milan, Italy. 4 Department of Veterinary Medicine, Università degli Studi di Milano, Via Celoria 10, 20133 Milan, Italy. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en Proceeding of Veterinary and Animal Science Days 2018, 6th- 8th June, Milan, Italy 62 HAF © 2013 Vol. V, No. 1s ISSN: 2283-3927 References Lee, W. Lee, S, D. Park, M, Y. Foley, L. Purcell-Estabrook, E. Kim, H. Yoo, S. 2015, Functional and diffusion tenor magnetic resonance imaging of the sheep brain. BMC Vet Res,. 11: 262. Assaf, Y. Pasternak, O. 2008, Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI)-based white matter mapping in brain research: a review. J Mol Neurosci,. 34(1): p. 51-61. Saucier-Sawyer, J. Seo, Y. Gaudin, A. Quijano, E. Song, E. Sawyer, A, Deng, Y. Huttner, A. Saltzman, W. M. 2016, Distribution of Polymer Nanoparticles by Convection-Enhanced Delivery to Brain Tumors. J control Release. 232: 103-112. Juratli, T.A., G. Schackert, and D. Krex, 2013. Current status of local therapy in malignant gliomas—a clinical review of three selected approaches. Pharmacol Ther. 139(3): p. 341-58. Figure 1: Sheep corticospinal tract. In this picture is showed the corticospinal tract merged with a MRI image acquired during the study. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en