In Utero MRI of Radial Glial Fibers Highlights Their Role in Modulating Fetal Cortical Folding

Reducing radial reinforcement in biomechanical simulations produces earlier cortical folding and greater curvature under otherwise matched conditions, linking radial glial scaffold mechanics to fetal cortical folding progression.

• Why it matters: Cortical folding depends on layer growth, but the biomechanical role of cellular microstructures and time-resolved in vivo markers remains unclear.
• What they did: Using multimodal in utero and ex vivo fetal brain MRI, histology, and computational mechanical simulation, the study quantified radial organization with diffusion MRI-based radial fiber density (FDrad) and compared it with curvature.
• The result: FDrad showed strong regional association with vimentin-labeled radial architecture and synchronized within-individual co-development with curvature, and simulations indicated radial scaffold disassembly can modulate differential-growth-driven buckling.