Emmeli F. R. Mikkelsen1, Per Mose Nielsen2, Haiyun Qi1, Thomas S. Nørlinger1, Hans Stødkilde-Jørgensen1, Niels Uldbjerg3, Michael Pedersen1, Puk Sandager3, and Christoffer Laustsen1
1MRI Research Centre, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, Denmark, 2Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, Denmark, 3Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, Denmark
Glucose is the main energy
source for the placenta and the fetus and is essential for normal growth and
development of the fetus. It has previously been shown that the
placenta itself consumes about half of the glucose supplied, metabolizing a
great amount to lactate. Hyperpolarized
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a novel non-harmful method for monitoring
metabolic processes in tissues in real time. We evaluate the
metabolism of [1-13C]-pyruvate in the placenta and fetus in a novel
pregnancy rodent model by the use of hyperpolarized MRI.
