Lijing Xin1, Giulio Gambarota1, Joo Miguel das Neves Duarte1, Vladimir Mlynarik1, Rolf Gruetter1,2
1Laboratory of functional and metabolic imaging, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Department of Radiology, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
Medulla oblongata (MO) is the part of the brainstem which regulates autonomic functions, such as heart beat, breathing and blood pressure. In previous studies, high levels of glycine have been reported in vitro in the MO. The present study demonstrated the feasibility of in vivo neurochemical profile quantification of 17 metabolites including glycine in the MO, by localized proton NMR spectroscopy at 9.4T. Compared to hippocampus, striatum and cortex, the MO displayed a three-times higher glycine concentration, as well as a significant decrease in glutamate, glutamine and taurine levels.