The Effects of Intracellular Organelles on the ADC of Water Molecules in Cells

Daniel C. Colvin¹, Jerome Jourquin², Junzhong Xu¹, Mark D. Does¹, Lourdes Estrada², John C. Gore¹

Diffusion-weighted MRI methods are commonly used to characterize changes in tissue structure that accompany such pathologies as stroke and cancer. However, the underlying biophysical mechanisms influencing the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) remain poorly understood. Temporal diffusion spectroscopy techniques, which probe diffusion times two orders of magnitude shorter than conventional pulsed gradient methods, were implemented in a study of packed human embryonic kidney cells treated with drugs that alter actin polymerization, microtubule formation, and Golgi structure. Results reveal that these techniques may provide a more sensitive probe of changes in intracellular structure compared to conventional methods.