Look-Locker MRI Measurements of Relaxation Rate After Manganese Labeling of Pancreatic β 946; Cells Detect Increments in Disease Progression in a Mouse Model of Type 1 Diabetes

Patrick Antkowiak¹, Brian Stevens², Marcia McDuffie², Frederick H. Epstein³

Pancreatic β cells secrete insulin and maintain blood glucose homeostasis; in type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D), β cell function and mass decline, with potentially severe complications. Noninvasive imaging to detect this decline would be important for both pre-clinical and clinical studies. We used Look-Locker MRI to measure the pancreatic relaxation rate R1 after injection of MnCl2, which labels functional β cells, and applied this to a mouse model of T1D characterized by a graded loss of functional β cell mass. We measured a decline in pancreatic R1 concurrent with the incidence of T1D and decline in functional β cell mass.