Kevin Kai-Chi Leung1,2, Wilfred W. Lam1, Albert P. Chen3, Charles H. Cunningham1,2
1Imaging Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 2Dept. of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 3GE Healthcare, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
In tumor metabolic studies that use hyperpolarized carbon-13 compounds and MR spectroscopy, there are metabolic products generated elsewhere in the body that enter the tissue of interest via the blood stream and complicate the analysis of local metabolism. This study attempted to quantify pyruvate-lactate conversions in ex vivo whole blood that might be useful in estimating blood metabolic contribution to regions of interest in in vivo studies. We showed that there is great variability in metabolic conversion rates among subjects and that metabolism in blood is very small compared to rat kidney tissues.