Aberrations in arginase enzyme expression are associated with a variety of pathologies, and an in vivo probe to quantify flux through this pathway may hold utility towards patient stratification. We propose the use our custom synthesized compound, [6-13C,15N3]-arginine, as a hyperpolarized MRI probe for arginase activity. 15N enrichment reduces quadrupolar relaxation and extends T2, facilitating in vivo imaging. We were able to acquire 13C spectroscopic data on a healthy mouse and detected in vivo conversion of hyperpolarized arginine to urea, which warrants further exploration of this imaging probe in the future.
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