Abstract #0959

Characterizing Breast Tumor Lipid Metabolism by Integrating Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopic Imaging with MALDI Mass Spectrometric Imaging

Lu Jiang¹, Kamila Chughtai², Dmitri Artemov¹, Paul Winnard Jr.¹, Venu Raman¹, Zaver Bhujwalla¹, Ron Heeren², Kristine Glunde¹

¹ICMIC, Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology & Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins Medical School, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²FOM-Institute for Atomic & Molecular Physics, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The intensity of the lipid signal in both MR spectroscopic images and mass spectrometric images of tumors is spatially heterogeneous. The likewise heterogeneous physiologic tumor microenvironment, characterized by regional hypoxia, may contribute to this heterogeneity. We therefore investigated the relationship between hypoxia and lipid metabolites in a human breast cancer model. To this end, we combined in vivo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) with ex vivo mass spectrometric imaging (MSI) and optical imaging of hypoxia and necrosis.