1Laboratory
of Functional and Metabolic Imaging, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Laboratory
of Functional and Metabolic Imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de
Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; 3Department of Radiology,
University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; 4Institute of
Physics of Biological Systems, Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne,
Lausanne, Switzerland; 5Laboratory of Functional and Metabolic
Imaging, cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland; 6Department
of Radiology, University of Lausanne and Geneva, Lausanne and Geneva,
Switzerland
Acetate has been widely used as a metabolic probe for measuring TCA cycle kinetics in vivo in skeletal muscle. To cross the mitochondrial membrane, acetate needs to be transformed into acetylcarnitine, a metabolite which has not been observed in vivo using non-hyperpolarized 13C MRS. The aim was to detect the [2-13C]acetylcarnitine resonance in vivo using localized DEPT at 14.1T. This study demonstrates that at high field using a polarization transfer technique acetylcarnitine can be observed. This allows for a more detailed characterization of acetate oxidation in skeletal muscle in vivo and in studies of metabolic disorders where carnitine deficiency occurs.
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