*2.10. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)*

MRI data acquisition and processing was similar to previous reports [44]. In brief, in vivo MRI was performed using a 9.4 T small animal MRI system (BioSpec, Bruker Biospin, Ettlingen, Germany) equipped with a gradient insert with a maximum gradient strength of 600 mT m−1. A quadrature transmit-receive coil (Bruker Biospin) with an inner diameter of 7 cm was used for data acquisition. TheMRI protocol included a spin echo sequence with TR=6000 ms, TE=15.8 ms, matrix = 200 × 200 mm, field of view 40 × 40 mm, slice thickness = 0.5 μm and 40 slices.
