Franz Schilling1, 2, Stephan Dwel1, 2, Markus Durst1, 3, Ulrich Kllisch1, 3, Jan Henrik Ardenkjaer-Larsen4, Pedro A. Gmez Damin3, Markus Schwaiger5, Rolf F. Schulte3, Steffen J. Glaser2, Axel Haase1, Angela Otto1, Marion I. Menzel3
1Zentralinstitut fr Medizintechnik, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Garching, Germany; 2Department of Chemistry, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Garching, Germany; 3GE Global Research, Munich, Germany; 4GE Healthcare, Copenhagen, Denmark; 5Department of Nuclear Medicine, Technische Universitt Mnchen, Munich, Germany
Understanding tumour metabolism is a central issue in diagnosis of tumours. Using magnetic resonance spectroscopy, hyperpolarized [1-13C]pyruvate and its metabolites can be detected to characterise the stage of a tumour. The signal of each metabolite emanates from both extra- and intracellular compartments. In this work, we show for the first time, using real-time direct detection, that diffusion coefficients of [1-13C]pyruvate and its metabolites in tumour cell spheroids can be determined. We foresee many new applications of hyperpolarized 13C diffusion-weighted spectroscopy e.g. to separate intra- and extracellular compartments of tumours, and to separate metabolic conversion from perfusion by large diffusion weightings.