Transverse Relaxation of Water in Ferritin Gel: Relative Contributions of Iron and Gel

Nobuhiro Takaya¹, Hidehiro Watanabe¹, Fumiyuki Mitsumori¹

Transverse relaxation of tissue water in human brain was explained with a linear combination of contributions from ferritin iron and the macromolecular mass fraction defined as 1-water fraction. This work examined whether the same scheme is applicable to relaxation of a model system composed of ferritin and agarose gel. The result of multiple regression analysis on the system showed that transverse relaxation in the system was described in the same manner as in human brain. B₀ dependence of R₂ demonstrated that the relaxation mechanism due to iron in gel samples is identical to that reported for a ferritin solution.