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Poli S, Emara AF, Lange NF, Ballabani E, Buser A, Schiavon M, Herzig D, Man CD, Bally L, Kreis R. Interleaved trinuclear MRS for single-session investigation of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism in human liver at 7T. NMR IN BIOMEDICINE 2024; 37:e5123. [PMID: 38423797 DOI: 10.1002/nbm.5123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2023] [Revised: 12/21/2023] [Accepted: 01/24/2024] [Indexed: 03/02/2024]
Abstract
The liver plays a central role in metabolic homeostasis, as exemplified by a variety of clinical disorders with hepatic and systemic metabolic disarrays. Of particular interest are the complex interactions between lipid and carbohydrate metabolism in highly prevalent conditions such as obesity, diabetes, and fatty liver disease. Limited accessibility and the need for invasive procedures challenge direct investigations in humans. Hence, noninvasive dynamic evaluations of glycolytic flux and steady-state assessments of lipid levels and composition are crucial for basic understanding and may open new avenues toward novel therapeutic targets. Here, three different MR spectroscopy (MRS) techniques that have been combined in a single interleaved examination in a 7T MR scanner are evaluated. 1H-MRS and 13C-MRS probe endogenous metabolites, while deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) relies on administration of deuterated tracers, currently 2H-labelled glucose, to map the spatial and temporal evolution of their metabolic fate. All three techniques have been optimized for a robust single-session clinical investigation and applied in a preliminary study of healthy subjects. The use of a triple-channel 1H/2H/13C RF coil enables interleaved examinations with no need for repositioning. Short-echo-time STEAM spectroscopy provides well resolved spectra to quantify lipid content and composition. The relative benefits of using water saturation versus metabolite cycling and types of respiratory synchronization were evaluated. 2H-MR spectroscopic imaging allowed for registration of time- and space-resolved glucose levels following oral ingestion of 2H-glucose, while natural abundance 13C-MRS of glycogen provides a dynamic measure of hepatic glucose storage. For DMI and 13C-MRS, the measurement precision of the method was estimated to be about 0.2 and about 16 mM, respectively, for 5 min scanning periods. Excellent results were shown for the determination of dynamic uptake of glucose with DMI and lipid profiles with 1H-MRS, while the determination of changes in glycogen levels by 13C-MRS is also feasible but somewhat more limited by signal-to-noise ratio.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Poli
- MR Methodology, Department for Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Translational Imaging Center (TIC), Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland
- Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Ahmed F Emara
- Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, Nutritional Medicine and Metabolism UDEM, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Naomi F Lange
- Department of Visceral Surgery and Medicine, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Graduate School for Health Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Edona Ballabani
- Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, Nutritional Medicine and Metabolism UDEM, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Angeline Buser
- Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, Nutritional Medicine and Metabolism UDEM, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Michele Schiavon
- Department of Information Engineering (DEI), University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - David Herzig
- Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, Nutritional Medicine and Metabolism UDEM, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Chiara Dalla Man
- Department of Information Engineering (DEI), University of Padova, Padua, Italy
| | - Lia Bally
- Department of Diabetes, Endocrinology, Nutritional Medicine and Metabolism UDEM, University Hospital Bern, Bern, Switzerland
| | - Roland Kreis
- MR Methodology, Department for Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland
- Translational Imaging Center (TIC), Swiss Institute for Translational and Entrepreneurial Medicine, Bern, Switzerland
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Hendriks AD, Veltien A, Voogt IJ, Heerschap A, Scheenen TWJ, Prompers JJ. Glucose versus fructose metabolism in the liver measured with deuterium metabolic imaging. Front Physiol 2023; 14:1198578. [PMID: 37465695 PMCID: PMC10351417 DOI: 10.3389/fphys.2023.1198578] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/01/2023] [Accepted: 06/20/2023] [Indexed: 07/20/2023] Open
Abstract
Chronic intake of high amounts of fructose has been linked to the development of metabolic disorders, which has been attributed to the almost complete clearance of fructose by the liver. However, direct measurement of hepatic fructose uptake is complicated by the fact that the portal vein is difficult to access. Here we present a new, non-invasive method to measure hepatic fructose uptake and metabolism with the use of deuterium metabolic imaging (DMI) upon administration of [6,6'-2H2]fructose. Using both [6,6'-2H2]glucose and [6,6'-2H2]fructose, we determined differences in the uptake and metabolism of glucose and fructose in the mouse liver with dynamic DMI. The deuterated compounds were administered either by fast intravenous (IV) bolus injection or by slow IV infusion. Directly after IV bolus injection of [6,6'-2H2]fructose, a more than two-fold higher initial uptake and subsequent 2.5-fold faster decay of fructose was observed in the mouse liver as compared to that of glucose after bolus injection of [6,6'-2H2]glucose. In contrast, after slow IV infusion of fructose, the 2H fructose/glucose signal maximum in liver spectra was lower compared to the 2H glucose signal maximum after slow infusion of glucose. With both bolus injection and slow infusion protocols, deuterium labeling of water was faster with fructose than with glucose. These observations are in line with a higher extraction and faster turnover of fructose in the liver, as compared with glucose. DMI with [6,6'-2H2]glucose and [6,6'-2H2]fructose could potentially contribute to a better understanding of healthy human liver metabolism and aberrations in metabolic diseases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arjan D. Hendriks
- Center of Image Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
| | - Andor Veltien
- Department of Medical Imaging (Radiology), Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | | | - Arend Heerschap
- Department of Medical Imaging (Radiology), Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Tom W. J. Scheenen
- Department of Medical Imaging (Radiology), Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
| | - Jeanine J. Prompers
- Center of Image Sciences, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands
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Nam KM, Gursan A, Bhogal AA, Wijnen JP, Klomp DWJ, Prompers JJ, Hendriks AD. Deuterium echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) in the human liver in vivo at 7 T. Magn Reson Med 2023. [PMID: 37154391 DOI: 10.1002/mrm.29696] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2022] [Revised: 04/04/2023] [Accepted: 04/19/2023] [Indexed: 05/10/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE To demonstrate the feasibility of deuterium echo-planar spectroscopic imaging (EPSI) to accelerate 3D deuterium metabolic imaging in the human liver at 7 T. METHODS A deuterium EPSI sequence, featuring a Hamming-weighted k-space acquisition pattern for the phase-encoding directions, was implemented. Three-dimensional deuterium EPSI and conventional MRSI were performed on a water/acetone phantom and in vivo in the human liver at natural abundance. Moreover, in vivo deuterium EPSI measurements were acquired after oral administration of deuterated glucose. The effect of acquisition time on SNR was evaluated by retrospectively reducing the number of averages. RESULTS The SNR of natural abundance deuterated water signal in deuterium EPSI was 6.5% and 5.9% lower than that of MRSI in the phantom and in vivo experiments, respectively. In return, the acquisition time of in vivo EPSI data could be reduced retrospectively to 2 min, beyond the minimal acquisition time of conventional MRSI (of 20 min in this case), while still leaving sufficient SNR. Three-dimensional deuterium EPSI, after administration of deuterated glucose, enabled monitoring of hepatic glucose dynamics with full liver coverage, a spatial resolution of 20 mm isotropic, and a temporal resolution of 9 min 50 s, which could retrospectively be shortened to 2 min. CONCLUSION In this work, we demonstrate the feasibility of accelerated 3D deuterium metabolic imaging of the human liver using deuterium EPSI. The acceleration obtained with EPSI can be used to increase temporal and/or spatial resolution, which will be valuable to study tissue metabolism of deuterated compounds over time.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyung Min Nam
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Ayhan Gursan
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Alex A Bhogal
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Jannie P Wijnen
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Dennis W J Klomp
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Jeanine J Prompers
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Arjan D Hendriks
- Center for Image Sciences, Department of High Field MR Research, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
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