Benedicte F. Jordan1, Julie Magat1,
Elif Ozel1, Valerie Marchand1, Patrice Cani2,
Nathalie Delzenne2, Bernard Gallez1
1Louvain Drug Research
Institute, Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Research Group, University of Louvain,
Brussels, Belgium; 2Louvain Drug Research Institute, Metabolism
& Nutrition Research Group, University of Louvain, Brussels, Belgium
In the present study, we propose to exploit the higher solubility property of oxygen in lipids than in water to monitor the changes in R1 of the lipid peak and translate it into pO2 values. For this purpose, we developed a sequence that is able to map variations in oxygenation based the relaxation properties of the tissue lipids. We measured in vitro the relaxation properties of water and lipid components in pure aqueous or oil phases, and tissue homogenates equilibrated in different oxygen environments, and monitored the evolution of the R1 of lipids in vivo in the liver of mice before and during a carbogen breathing challenge. The measurement of R1 in lipids offers an increased sensitivity when monitoring the changes in tissue oxygenation compared to previously described techniques that measure the variations of R1 in the water component.