Double-PFG MR Reveals Insights Into Compartment Shape, Organization & Morphology in Heterogeneous Specimens

Noam Shemesh¹, Yoram Cohen¹

The angular d-PFG methodology recently gained interest owing to its ability to characterize underlying microstructure even when compartments are randomly oriented. Here, we applied the angular bipolar-d-PFG (bp-d-PFG) methodology to study yeast cells, a synthetic porous medium, and an emulsion. The angular bp-d-PFG accurately reported on compartment morphology, yielding unique signatures for underlying microstructure. Furthermore, the emulsion can be regarded as a model for intra/extracellular spaces. While the single-PFG MR only showed isotropic diffusion, the bp-d-PFG showed that toluene is confined in spherical compartments while water molecules undergo restricted diffusion in randomly oriented anisotropic compartments between the toluene droplets.