Lithium is the first-line drug used in bipolar disorder, a chronic psychiatric illness characterized by severe biphasic changes in mood. Lithium has a narrow therapeutic window and has shown cardiac side effects. The present work demonstrates the detectability of lithium induced changes of mitochondrial metabolism in cardiomyocytes by employing hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate magnetic resonance imaging of the in-vivo heart. In healthy rats, lithium is shown to increase mitochondrial metabolism and decrease glycolytic lactate production indicating a potential role of lithium in the heart.
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