A Pilot Study for In Vivo Measurement and Quantification of Brain Glucose Metabolic Rates using Oral Uptake of Deuterated Glucose

Recently, we developed a novel Deuterium MRS (DMRS) approach for simultaneously measuring cerebral glucose consumption rate and TCA cycle flux in rat brains at 16.4 T. Instead of using a clamp protocol in ¹³C MRS studies, our DMRS approach utilizes a brief i.v. infusion of glucose isotope. In this work, we aimed to establish a completely noninvasive delivery of the tracer into brain. By using oral uptake, DMRS detection sensitivity was evaluated and metabolic rates were quantified. Our results demonstrated the feasibility of using oral uptake for DMRS applications, which makes it highly suitable and promising for translation to patients.