Translating the hyperpolarized signal observed in the brain in vivo to cerebral metabolic rates is not straightforward, as the observed signals reflect also the influx of metabolites produced in the body, the cerebral blood volume and flow, and the rate of transport across the blood brain barrier. We introduce a robust method to study rapid metabolism of hyperpolarized substrates ex vivo in viable rat brain slices and demonstrate its ability to characterize rates of LDH and PDH activities. Despite variations in these measured rates, we saw that the Lactate to Bicarbonate ratio is highly reproducible across all samples.
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