Abstract #0447

Imaging Glucose Uptake in a Preclinical Brain Tumor Model Using GlucoCEST

Kannie W.Y. Chan¹,², Guanshu Liu¹,³, Bachchu Lal³,⁴, Jeff W.M. Bulte,²⁵, John Laterra³,⁶, Dmitri Artemov⁷,⁸, Michael T. McMahon¹,³, Peter C.M. van Zijl¹,³

¹Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ²Cellular Imaging Section and Vascular Biology Program, Institute for Cell Engineering, Baltimore, MD, United States; ³F.M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁴Department of Neurology, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁵Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁶Department of Neuroscience, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁷JHU In Vivo Cellular Molecular Imaging Center, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States; ⁸Division of Cancer Imaging Research, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

Neuroimaging has an important role in the diagnosis of tumors, especially to identify different stages of tumor development, the likelihood of metastasis, and the effects of treatment. Recently, Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) MR imaging of natural D-glucose (glucoCEST) was proposed as a novel molecular imaging approach with a biodegradable substrate for tumors. Here we apply this method to visualize glucose uptake in brain tumors, using an orthotopically implanted human brain tumor xenograft in mice. The results show that, using glucoCEST, the tumor glucose uptake can be clearly distinguished from brain glucose uptake.