Angus Z. Lau1,
2, Albert P. Chen3, Michelle Ladouceur-Wodzak1,
Krishna S. Nayak4, Charles H. Cunningham1, 2
1Imaging
Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 2Department
of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 3GE
Healthcare, Toronto, Ontario, Canada; 4Department of Electrical
Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, United
States
The recent identification of functional brown adipose tissue (BAT) in humans has implications for the treatment of obesity. In this study, dynamic, spatially resolved hyperpolarized 13C imaging was used to non-invasively identify functional BAT in vivo in a rodent model. BAT was activated using intraperitoneal injection of norepinephrine and detected following infusion of pre-polarized 13C pyruvate. Increases in 13C bicarbonate (3.7-fold) and 13C lactate (3.5-fold) signal in the interscapular region correspond to a known rodent BAT deposit. The radiation-free nature of this imaging exam may potentially facilitate trials of therapeutics targeting BAT activation in humans.