Catherine DG. Hines1, Huanzhou Yu2, Ann Shimakawa2, Rashmi Agni3, Thomas F. Warner3, Jean H. Brittain4, Scott B. Reeder1,5
1Biomedical Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; 2Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, USA; 3Surgical Pathology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA; 4Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Madison, WI, USA; 5Radiology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, USA
Insulin-sensitizing drugs are commonly used to treat hepatic steatosis in NAFLD/NASH patients. The purpose of this work is 1) to use MRI to non-invasively monitor metformin treatment longitudinally in an animal model of hepatic steatosis, the ob/ob mouse, and 2) evaluate the reproducibility of imaging fat-fraction measurements in order to detect meaningful longitudinal changes in fat-fractions. MRI fat-fractions agreed with Histological grading, and a 5.3% deviation about the mean indicates a true physiological difference in hepatic fat-fraction. These results demonstrate MRI successfully monitors insulin-sensitizing treatment of hepatic steatosis and progression of steatosis in mice.