Objective:Noninvasivediffusion-weightedmagneticresonanceimaging(DWI)isawell-studiedMRimagingtechniqueforquantifyingwaterdiffusionespeciallyintumorarea.Thecorrelationbetweenapparentdiffusioncoefficient(ADC)valueandapoptosisorproliferationisnotclearbynow.ThisstudyaimedtoinvestigatewhetherDWI-ADCvaluecouldbeusedasanimagingmarkerrelatedwithpathologicindexesoftumors.Methods:Atotalof30Balb/cmicewithHT29colorectalcarcinomaweresubjectedtoDWIandhistologicanalysis.ThepercentageofADCchangesandtheapoptoticandproliferatingindexeswerecalculatedatpredefinedtimepoints.Kolmogorov-SmirnovdistanceswereconsideredtodeterminewhetherthepercentageofADCchanges,andtheapoptoticandproliferatingindexeswerenormallydistributed.Anindependent-samplest-testwasusedtoanalyzethedifferencebetweenapoptoticandproliferatingindexesinthetwogroups.Results:Therewasastatisticallysignificantdifferenceinproliferatingindexbetweentheradiotherapyandcontrolgroups(meanproliferatingindex:49.27%vs.83.09%),andtherewasastatisticallysignificantdifferenceinapoptoticindexbetweenthetwogroups(meanapoptoticindex:37.7%vs.2.71%).AsignificantpositivecorrelationwasfoundbetweenthepercentageofADCchangesoftheviabletissueandapoptoticindex.Pearson'scorrelationcoefficientwas0.655(P=0.015).AsignificantnegativecorrelationwasfoundbetweenthepercentageofADCchangesoftheviabletissueandki-67proliferationindex.Pearson'scorrelationcoefficientwas0.734(P<0.001).Conclusions:OurresultssuggestthatADCvaluemaybeusedinmeasurementofcellapoptoticandproliferatingindexesincolorectalcarcinoma.
