Lin Z. Li1, 2, He N. Xu1, 2, Stephen Kadlececk1, Kavindra Nath1, Kejia Cai1, Hari Hariharan1, Jerry D. Glickson1, Rahim Rizi1
1Department of Radiology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States; 2Britton Chance Laboratory of Redox Imaging, Johnson Research Foundation, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, United States
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide)-coupled redox potential NAD+/NADH is a key mediator in many biological processes including metabolism, growth, survival, motility and signaling. It is implicated in pathologies of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancer etc. Despite its importance, non-invasive method for measuring NAD+/NADH in tissue has not been developed. This work presents hyperpolarized 13C-NMR detection of pyruvate and lactate in tissue as the first non-invasive method to quantify the intracellular NAD+/NADH in vivo. We quantified cytosolic redox state in human breast cancer mouse xenografts along with intracellular pH measurement by 31P-NMR.