The Use of Fatty Acids with Hyperpolarized Pyruvate to Study Cardiac Substrate Metabolism in the Isolated Perfused Heart

Daniel Ball¹, Ben Rowlands¹, Rhys Evans¹, Kieran Clarke¹, Damian Tyler¹

The isolated perfused heart, in combination with dynamic nuclear polarization, has proven to be an excellent model for the study of cardiac metabolism. However this model ideally requires the use of fatty acids to achieve a more physiological preparation. Previous work has shown that using bovine serum albumin to solubilise long chain fatty acids reduces the signal observed from hyperpolarized metabolites. The aim of this study was therefore to find alternative ways of providing the heart with fatty acids without compromising hyperpolarized signal intensity.