Cristina Cudalbu1, Vladimr Mlynrik2,
Bernard Lanz2, Hanne Frenkel2, Nicolas Costers2,3,
Rolf Gruetter2,4
1Laboratory for Functional and
Metabolic Imaging (LIFMET), Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL) ,
Lausanne, Switzerland; 2Laboratory for Functional and Metabolic
Imaging (LIFMET), Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne (EPFL), Lausanne,
Switzerland; 3Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Leuven, Belgium; 4Departments
of Radiology, Universities of Lausanne and Geneva, Switzerland
The
aim of the study was to image for the first time the in vivo effect of
hyperammonemia per se on 12 brain metabolites using short TE 1H SI . We also
mapped the net glutamine synthesis rates during hyperammonemia. Contrary to
other models of hyperammonemia associated with experimental acute liver
failures, no changes in spatial distribution of metabolites were observed
except of Gln increase (higher in cortex than in hippocampus). We imaged for
the first time the net glutamine accumulation in vivo, and showed that the
rates were significantly higher in the cortex than in the hippocampus.