1Department
of Chemical Physics, Faculty of Chemistry, Weizmann Institute of Science,
Rehovot, Israel
Modification of proton T1 relaxation upon band-selective excitation is well known in protein solution NMR; however, such effects have never been observed in CNS metabolites. Here, we show statistically significant T1 relaxation enhancement in non-water-suppressed band-selective excitation for several metabolites in excised mouse brains. A 30-50% decrease in T1 was observed compared to conventional water suppressed schemes, suggesting some form of cross-relaxation as a mechanism. Our methodology affords a straightforward way to enhance MRSs sensitivity per unit time, and opens new routes to investigate the nature of metabolic interactions among them and with water in tissues, at a molecular level.