Su Xu1,2, Da Shi1,2, Steven Roys1,2,
Alan McMillian1,2, Rao Gullapalli1,2, Rich Lovering3
1Diagnostic Radiology &
Nuclear Medicine, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD,
United States; 2Core for Translational Research in Imaging @
Maryland University of Maryland School ; 3Department of
Orthopaedics, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD,
United States
We assessed the potential of in vivo 1H MRS to monitor the intra-myocellular lipids in acute skeletal muscle injury in healthy and mdx mice (an animal model for human Duchenne muscular dystrophy). We found that mdx mice demonstrated very low intra-myocellular lipids level. However, injury caused a significant increase in intra-myocellular lipids in the mdx group only. Histology confirmed the changes quantified by the in vivo 1H MRS. We propose that in vivo 1H MRS is a sensitive measure of muscle injury with potential applicability in preclinical therapeutic screening studies in rodents.
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