Hyeonseung Lee1, quan-yu Cai1, Chulhyun Lee1, Ki-Nam Min2, Jong Kook Park2, Kyeong-Hoon Jeong2, Kwan Soo Hong1
1Magnetic resonance imaging team, Korea basic science institute, Ochang, Cheongwon-Gun, Chungcheongbuk-Do, Korea; 2Mazence, Suwon, Gyeonggi-Do, Korea
Alcoholic and nonalcoholic fatty liver are highly prevalent in human populations and may develop into steatohepatitis and in some cases into cirrhosis requiring liver transplantation. 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) has a high sensitivity for assessing the amount of hepatic fat content. We have isolated a novel compound, cryptotanshinone, from Salvia militorrhiza, which is an herb that is used extensively in Asian medicine and that is known to exert beneficial effects on the circulatory system. In this study, we demonstrated that in vivo non-invasively and quantitatively evaluate and monitor the hepatic fat accumulation in ob/ob mice depending on the treatment period/amount of cryptotanshinone using 1H-MRS technique.