- Park, Ilwoo;
- Larson, Peder EZ;
- Tropp, James L;
- Carvajal, Lucas;
- Reed, Galen;
- Bok, Robert;
- Robb, Fraser;
- Bringas, John;
- Kells, Adrian;
- Pivirotto, Philip;
- Bankiewicz, Krystof;
- Vigneron, Daniel B;
- Nelson, Sarah J
Purpose
To investigate hyperpolarized (13) C metabolic imaging methods in the primate brain that can be translated into future clinical trials for patients with brain cancer.Methods
(13) C coils and pulse sequences designed for use in humans were tested in phantoms. Dynamic (13) C data were obtained from a healthy cynomolgus monkey brain using the optimized (13) C coils and pulse sequences. The metabolite kinetics were estimated from two-dimensional localized (13) C dynamic imaging data from the nonhuman primate brain.Results
Pyruvate and lactate signal were observed in both the brain and the surrounding tissues with the maximum signal-to-noise ratio of 218 and 29 for pyruvate and lactate, respectively. Apparent rate constants for the conversion of pyruvate to lactate and the ratio of lactate to pyruvate showed a difference between brain and surrounding tissues.Conclusion
The feasibility of using hyperpolarized [1-(13) C]-pyruvate for assessing in vivo metabolism in a healthy nonhuman primate brain was demonstrated using a hyperpolarized (13) C imaging experimental setup designed for studying patients with brain tumors. The kinetics of the metabolite conversion suggests that this approach may be useful in future studies of human neuropathology.