Assessment of Pulmonary Inflammation in a Rat Bleomycin Model Using Oxygen-Weighted Hyperpolarized 3He MRI

Puttisarn Mongkolwisetwara¹, Milton Rossman², Evguenia Arguiri², Harrilla Profka¹, Kiarash Emami¹, Yi Xin¹, Stephen J. Kadlecek¹, Melpo Christofidou-Solomidou², Rahim

Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) is a fatal lung disease. It causes scarring of the lungs and limits oxygen transport across membranes into bloodstream. The disease course of IPF is variable. In this work, hyperpolarized (HP) 3He MRI is used to acquire regional information of oxygen tension, oxygen uptake and fractional ventilation in a rat model of interstitial fibrosis secondary to bleomycin. Significant correlation between oxygen uptake and biological markers of inflammation and fibrosis in lung suggests that the oxygen-weighted HP MRI can be used as a tool for early detection of fibrosis development and evaluate disease progress in humans.