Paul R Burghardt¹, Dalal Khatib¹, Andrew Neff¹, Katherine Nowak¹, Katlin Chappelle¹, and Jeffrey Stanley^1
1Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, United States

Personality and fitness impact emotional regulation, however the neurobiological mechanisms underlying these relationships are poorly understood. dACC glutamate modulation was quantified during appraisal of emotional images using ¹H fMRS. Additionally,  aerobic fitness and trait personality were assessed in participants. The dACC glutamate was lower during positive images compared to neutral images, which was associated with trait openness. Glutamate levels during appraisal of negative emotional images did not differ from neutral images, but was negatively associated with aerobic fitness. These results shed light on the mechanisms that modulate the impact of trait personality and fitness on ACC response during emotional regulation.  

Muhammad Gulamabbas Saleh¹, Afroditi Papantoni², Georg Oeltzschner¹, Mark Mikkelsen¹, Nicolaas A Puts¹, Richard A Edden¹, and Susan Carnell^2
1Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States

GABA is the primary inhibitory neurotransmitter in the human brain and is implicated in several neuropathologies. Glutathione is a major antioxidant in the brain and is considered a marker of oxidative stress. Several studies have reported age-related declines in GABA levels in adulthood, but the aging dynamics of both GABA and glutathione have not been well explored in childhood. We demonstrate increases in GABA and no differences in glutathione with age in a healthy pediatric sample (5.7-13.9 years). This study provides insight into neuronal maturation in children and may facilitate better understanding of the pathophysiology of developmental disorders.

Joe Pollacco^1,2, William Clarke³, Aaron Hess¹, Dragana Savic^1,4, Christopher T Rodgers^1,5, Damian Tyler^1,4, Jack JJ Miller^1,2,4, and Ladislav Valkovic^1,6
1Oxford Centre for Clinical Magnetic Resonance Research, RDM Cardiovascular Medicine, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ²Department of Physics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ³Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁴Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, ⁵Wolfson Brain Imaging Centre, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom, ⁶Department of Imaging Methods, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

Cardiac acetyl-carnitine plays an important role in fat metabolism. Decreased carnitine concentration has been reported in heart failure, but it has previously been difficult to measure acetyl-carnitine in-vivo. We show for the first time that it is possible to detect a clear acetyl-carnitine resonance at δ=2.1ppm without lipid contamination within the heart using a long echo time semi-LASER sequence at 3T. This validates the finding in skeletal muscle that the T₂ of acetyl-carnitine is much longer than its surrounding lipid signals. Further work is underway to investigate variability of the acetyl-carnitine signal postprandially.

Maame Owusu-Ansah¹, Candace C. Fleischer¹, and Daniel E. Harper^2
1Department of Radiology and Imaging Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States, ²Department of Anesthesiology, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA, United States

A proof-of-concept generalized linear model to characterize the relationships between brain metabolite concentrations and pain perception is presented, explicitly accounting for differences in regional grey matter (GM) density. Brain metabolite concentrations measured with magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), and pain perception characterized using quantitative sensory testing (QST), were significantly associated in a cohort of patients with chronic pain. These results contribute to the expanding literature that supports the utility of neuroimaging to understand the underlying mechanisms of centralized chronic pain.

Martin Gajdosik¹, Jonathan Wai^2,3, Karl Landheer¹, Diana Martinez^2,4, and Christoph Juchem^1,5
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia University, New York City, NY, United States, ²Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York City, NY, United States, ³New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York City, NY, United States, ⁴Department of Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York City, NY, United States, ⁵Department of Radiology, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York City, NY, United States

Accurate detection of hepatocellular lipid content (HLC) in individuals with alcohol use disorder (AUD) is needed for early diagnosis of hepatic steatosis, a harbinger of serious liver diseases such as cirrhosis. Using a standard clinical 3T system and ultrashort-TE liver MRS, the proposed sequence employed asymmetric RF pulses with spoiler gradient cycling to achieve minimal TE of 5ms and minimal T₂ errors for reliable signal quantification. No difference was found in HCL and choline levels between controls and AUD subjects. After a 3-week abstinence period, changes in hepatic fat and choline levels were observed in subjects with AUD.

Yi-Chen Tsai¹, Hui-Ru Tsai¹, Ming-Chung Chou², Ping-Hong Lai^3,4, Jie-Yuan Li^5,6, and Cheng-Wen Ko^1
1Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ²Dept. of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ³Dept. of Radiology, Veterans General Hospital-Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ⁴School of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, ⁵Dept. of Neurology, E-Da Hospital, Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ⁶School of Medicine, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Kaohsiung, Taiwan

In this study, we explored the metabolic changes in WM of patients with and without DNS using 1H MRS and DKI longitudinally at 1 week and 1, 3, and 9 months after CO intoxication. Increased Cr and Cho were observed at early stage in WM of patients with DNS.  Decreased tNAA showed higher correlation with the presence of WM lesion than of DNS.  The chronic change of Ins and Glx in patients with DNS implies themselves as potential indices to provide valuable information for monitoring DNS development.

Oun Al-iedani^1,2, Karen Ribbons², Jeannette Lechner-Scott^2,3,4, Neda Gholizadeh¹, Scott Quadrelli⁵, Rodney Lea², Ovidiu Andronesi⁶, and Saadallah Ramadan^1,2
1School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, ²Hunter Medical Research Institute (HMRI), Newcastle, Australia, ³School of Medicine and Public Health, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, ⁴Department of Neurology, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia, ⁵Faculty of Medicine, University of Queensland, Herston, Australia, ⁶Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, United States

The study designed a novel neurometabolic mapping using multi-slice Spiral-MRSI with multi-voxel segmentation and support vector machine(SVM)  techniques to demonstrate the true nature of NAWM and WML of RRMS patients, compared to HCs. 3D-Spiral-MRSI covering 75% of the brain on 16 RRMS and 9 HCs were used. Multi-slice-MRSI was processed using novel pipeline with 3-model SVM classifications. Neurometabolic mapping revealed that (NAA/tCr) in WM-lesions was significantly lower than NAWM-MS and HCs with HCs vs WML model achieving highest sensitivity and specificity. Multi-slice-spiral-MRSI may enhance diagnosis and clinical monitoring of RRMS patients, and is sensitive in diagnosing RRMS even in NAWM.

Tangi Roussel^1,2, Yann Le Fur^1,2, Jean-Philippe Ranjeva^1,2, and Virginie Callot^1,2
1Aix-Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRMBM, Marseille, France, ²APHM, Hôpital Universitaire Timone, CEMEREM, Marseille, France

¹H MR spectroscopy (MRS) is of great interest to help characterizing human spinal cord pathologies. However, few studies have been reported so far because of challenging experimental difficulties caused by the small size of the structure, static and radiofrequency field heterogeneities, as well as physiological motion and especially breathing. In this work, we demonstrate the necessity of respiratory-gated acquisition to collect robust ¹H MRS data from the cervical spinal cord at 7T. We also present dedicated post-processing and quantitative approaches for SC metabolic assessment.

Ralf Mekle¹, Jochen B Fiebach¹, and Heiner Stuke^2
1Center for Stroke Research Berlin, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, ²Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Schizophrenia frequently manifests psychotic symptoms, such as delusions and hallucinations. However, its neurochemical mechanisms are not well deciphered, though dysfunctional dopaminergic neurotransmission is suggested. In this study, single volume ¹H MRS using MEGA-PRESS at 3 T was applied to investigate possible neurochemical changes in the visual cortex induced by pharmacologically increased dopamine levels in healthy volunteers that also performed a visual detection task. Increased dopamine yielded decreased GABA and reduced glutamate quantities. Furthermore, an inverse correlation of glutamate with false perceptions in the detection task supports the theory that glutamate hypofunction might contribute to the formation of hallucinations in schizophrenia.

Zijun Li¹, Xiaoyang Li¹, and Bing Yu^1
1Shengjing Hospital of China Medical University, Shenyang, China

In the current study we investigated  the effect of DRD4 DNA methylation levels on the GABA concentrations in mPFC in PNE children.

Our results suggested the DNA methylation level of DRD4 is associated with increased GABA concentrations in the mPFC in PNE children. The effects of epigenetic variation of the DRD4 DNA on GABA concentrations in mPFC may help us understand the epigenetic susceptibility of the DRD4  DNA methylation to PNE.

Virendra Kumar¹, Naveen Kumar MS², sujeet kumar mewar¹, Pradeep Kumar¹, Naveet Wig², Prayas Sethi², and Sanjeev Sinha^2
1Department of NMR, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India, ²Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, India

The present study reported the differences in metabolic profile of serum samples from patient with sepsis to identify survivor and non-survivor (day 0) using NMR metabolomics. A significantly higher concentration of tyrosine, histidine, methionine, betaine, creatine, phosphocreatine and choline in the serum of sepsis patients who did not survive septic shock compared to survivors. These findings suggest that metabolic alterations at day 0 may predict the survival of the septic patients. 

Petr Bednarik¹, Tomas Horak², Magda Horakova³, Alena Svatkova⁴, Zdenek Kadanka³, Zdenek Kadanka jr³, Petr Kudlicka⁵, Jan Valosek⁶, Dinesh Deelchand⁷, Pierre-Gilles Henry⁷, and Josef Bednarik^3
1Departement of Medical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy, High Field MR Center, Vienna, Austria, ²Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, ³Department of Neurology, University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, ⁴Department of Internal Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ⁵Multimodal and Functional Imaging Laboratory, Central European Institute of Technology, Brno, Czech Republic, ⁶Departments of Neurology and Biomedical Engineering, University Hospital Olomouc, Olomouc, Czech Republic, ⁷Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, United States

While cervical spinal cord (CSC) compression occurs almost ubiquitously with aging, early metabolic changes in CSC that might develop into irreversible clinical myelopathy symptoms have not been described yet. Thus, we utilized fine-tuned semi-LASER 3T MRS protocol that addresses limitations of standard MRS methods to unravel metabolic damage in the cranial parts of the CSC in 50 patients with non-myelopathic degenerative cervical cord compression and 10 with clinically symptomatic degenerative cervical myelopathy  in comparison to 35 healthy controls. Higher tNAA/tCr and myo-Ins/tNAA levels suggest axonal loss  above the level of stenosis, indicating that CSC impairment exceeds the level of compression.

Ying Liu^1,2, Lei Wei^1,2, and Xiaoyong Zhang^1,2
1Institute of Science and Technology for Brain-Inspired Intelligence, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, ²Key Laboratory of Computational Neuroscience and Brain-Inspired Intelligence (Fudan University), Ministry of Education, Shanghai, China

Shank3 plays an important role in the functioning of glutamatergic synapses. In this work, we investigated whether Shank3 deficiency could induce neuroimaging changes in a transgenic autism mouse model using structural MRI and MRS at 11.7T. Our data showed that the neurochemical metabolites in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) are significantly changed in Shank3 deficiency models of heterozygous and homozygous genotypes, relative to wildtype controls. However, the volume of mPFC does not show significant alteration among three groups. We concluded that metabolic abnormalities are closely related to different phenotypes of Shank3 deficiency in mice.

Jessica Archibald^1,2, Erin L MacMillan^3,4,5, Carina Graf^2,6, Piotr Kozlowski^2,7,8, Cornelia Laule^2,9,10, and John LK Kramer^1,2,11
1Experimental Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ²International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), Vancouver, BC, Canada, ³Radiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁴Image Tech Lab, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁵Philips Healthcare Canada, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁶Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁷Radiology, University of British Columbia, vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁸UBC MRI Research Centre, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ⁹Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, vancouver, BC, Canada, ¹⁰Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada, ¹¹School of Kinesiology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

Current treatment evaluation procedures of pain conditions are dependent on self-reported measures. The objective of this study was to determine changes in excitatory neurotransmitters (i.e., glutamate and glutamate+glutamine) in the anterior cingulate cortex as an objective measure of pain during a painful stimulus using single voxel functional magnetic resonance spectroscopy (fMRS). Glutamate concentration changes during the painful stimulus suggest a role for glutamate in detecting pain which was not related to self-reported pain ratings. An exploratory analysis on sex revealed an 8.63% (p=0.08) increase in glutamate at pain onset in female participants compared with a 7.45% (p=0.31) increase in males.

Martina Vermathen¹, Norbert Mueller², David Leitsch³, Damian Hertig⁴, Peter Vermathen⁴, and Joachim Mueller^2
1Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ²Institute of Parasitology, Vetsuisse Faculty, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland, ³Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, ⁴DBMR & DIPR, University Bern, Bern, Switzerland

The intestinal protozoan parasite Giardia lamblia is a major cause of persistent diarrhea in humans and animals worldwide. Treatment of giardiasis with nitro-prodrugs relies on intrinsic enzymes in G.lamblia that are involved in activating or deactivating the prodrugs. To elucidate more about the physiologic function of these pathways and their potential roles in drug resistance, G.lamblia wildtype and transgenic strains were metabolomically characterized based on ¹H HR-MAS NMR data and specific metabolites that may be related to nitroreductase activity were identified and discussed.

Shin-ichi Urayama¹, Yujiro Yoshihara², Masaki Fukunaga³, and Toshiya Murai^2
1Human Brain Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, ²Department of Psychiatry, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, ³National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, Japan

Glutathione (GSH) is a powerful and general antioxidant found in cell of various animals. Since its concentration in central nervous system has been thought to related to psychiatric disease, several studies has carried out but the results are still controversial. Here, we investigated GSH diurnal fluctuation of healthy subjects and compared with the results of the reproducibility study. Our results shows GSH concentration in brain fluctuates by 10 to 20% during the daytime. This finding indicates that conditions of MRS examination must be regulated strictly and the fluctuation should be took into account at interpretation of GSH studies.

Tomohisa Okada¹, Koji Fujimoto¹, Dinh Ha Duy Thuy¹, Hideto Kuribayashi², Yuta Urushibata², Ravi Teja Seethamraju³, Sinyeob Ahn⁴, and Tadashi Isa^1
1Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, ²Siemens Healthcare K.K., Tokyo, Japan, ³Siemens Healthineers USA, Burlington, MA, United States, ⁴Siemens Healthineers USA, Berkeley, CA, United States

Relationship between glutamate and GABA as well as their regional differences have not been much investigated.  Focused on the posterior cingulate cortex (PCC), the primary motor area (M1) and the primary visual area (V1), this study found significantly higher glutamate concentration and E/I ratios at PCC than others, whereas GABA concentration was significantly higher at V1 than others.  Region-wise correlation analysis between glutamate and GABA found statistically significant correlation only at M1 (r = 0.69, p = 0.0005).  These differences may reflect difference in functional status at rest, but further investigation is required to clarify the reasons.

Poonam Choudhary^1,2, Suyog Pol², Marilena Preda^2,3, Robert Zivadinov^2,3, and Ferdinand Schweser^2,3
1Department of Medical Physics, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States, ²Buffalo Neuroimaging Analysis Center, Department of Neurology, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States, ³Center for Biomedical Imaging at the Clinical and Translational Science Institute, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, United States

This study aimed to characterize the metabolic alterations in the thalamus throughout the disease course of Theiler's murine encephalomyelitis virus (TMEV) in mice using 9.4T MRS, and relate the findings to the known effects of microglia activation on neurotransmitter homeostasis. Our study confirmed that TMEV models metabolite alterations in Multiple Sclerosis. Dynamics of neurotransmitter imbalance suggest that early thalamic dyshomeostatis is driven by neuronal loss in basal ganglia input.

Samuel Ajamu¹, Rachel Fenner¹, Nikkita Khattar², Yulia Grigorova¹, Edward Lakatta¹, Ondrej Juhasz¹, Peter Rapp³, Mustapha Bouhrara², Richard Spencer², Olga Fedorova¹, and Kenneth Fishbein^2
1Laboratory of Cardiovascular Science, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, United States, ²Laboratory of Clinical Investigation, National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, United States, ³National Institute on Aging, Baltimore, MD, United States

Central arterial stiffness (CAS), associated with hypertension, is likely associated with attendant cerebral hypoperfusion, neuronal density loss and cognitive decline, and stiffening of cerebral arterial wall. We previously found associations between pulse wave velocity (PWV), a marker of CAS, and hippocampal cerebral blood flow (CBF) and neuronal density in 6 months old hypertensive Dahl salt-sensitive (Dahl-S) rats, which exhibit age-associated memory loss. The present study showed the ACE inhibitor, lisinopril, resulted in stabilized hippocampal blood flow and NAA concentration compared to nontreated age-matched animals. We also observed significant changes in cortical thickness for treated animals compared to nontreated control.

Jameen ARM^1,2, Georg Oeltzschner^3,4, Oun Al-Iedani^1,2, Rodney Lea^5,6, Jeannette Lechner-Scott^5,7,8, and Sadallah Ramadan^1,5
1School of Health Sciences, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, ²Imaging centre, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, Australia, ³The Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Science, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁴F. M. Kirby Research Center for Functional Brain Imaging, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD, United States, ⁵HMRI Imaging centre, Hunter Medical Research Institute, Newcastle, Australia, ⁶School of Biomedical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, ⁷Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, Australia, ⁸Department of Neurology, John Hunter Hospital, Newcastle, Australia

Despite neuro metabolic and morphological alterations linked to central fatigue in multiple sclerosis (MS), the pathophysiology of this symptom is not fully understood. Dysfunction of the GABAergic/Glutamatergic pathways involving inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitters such as γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamine+glutamate pools (Glx) have been implicated in several neurological disorders, including MS.  In this study, we evaluated if GABA and Glx levels are associated with central fatigue in MS. Our results showed significant correlations of GABA and Glx levels with fatigue scores which suggest dysregulation of GABAergic/glutamatergic neurotransmission is possibly implicated in the mechanisms of mediating central fatigue in MS

Ronald Ouwerkerk¹, Jatin Raj Matta¹, Ahmed Hamimi¹, Aaron M Cypess², Kong Y Chen³, and Ahmed Medhat Gharib^1
1Biomedical and Metabolic Imaging Branch, NIDDK/NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²Translational Physiology Section, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch, NIDDK/NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, ³Energy Metabolism Section, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Obesity Branch, NIDDK/NIH, Bethedsa, MD, United States

Localized 1H-MRS was used to compare the fatty acid composition and MR relaxation in PET proven metabolically active brown adipose tissue (BAT) in humans with white adipose tissue (WAT). Paired comparison of BAT and WAT results from the same individuals the showed differences in MR relaxation of fatty acid resonances and unsaturated fatty acid content between metabolically activatable brown fat and white adipose tissue

Nathan Tosh^1,2, Scott Quadrelli², Chris Foster², Graham Galloway², David Crompton^2,3, and Carolyn Mountford^2
1School of Clinical Sciences, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia, ²Translational Research Institute, Woolloongabba, Australia, ³Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia

2D L-COSY has previously been used to demonstrate neurochemical differences between PTSD and healthy cohorts but requires a 19 minute acquisition. Single Voxel Spectroscopy (SVS), acquired in 3 minutes, was used to collect data from 3 brain regions in healthy controls and patients with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Neurochemical differences were seen in all the ACC, Thalamus and PCG. Data, analysed using LC Model, showed elevated levels of NAA, Lactate, GABA and Glutathione as well as glutamatergic dysfunction. Thus, SVS can be used to identify PTSD in a shorter time frame than 2D L-COSY.

Ya-Tien Liu¹, Dian-Han Yang¹, Cheng-Wen Ko¹, Tzu-Chao Chuang², and Shang-Yueh Tsai^3,4
1Department of Computer Science and Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ²Department of Electrical Engineering, National Sun Yat-sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan, ³Graduate Institute of Applied Physics, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan, ⁴Research Center of Mind, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan

In this study, we investigate the feasibility of using MEGA-PRESS to detect Lac response to the visual stimuli in visual cortex in fMRS experiment at 3T.  The significant raise in Lac level was found either by averaging the whole fMRS scan or by averaging over the stimuli blocks.  Our results show consistency with the published results.  More sophisticated approach to analyze fMRS data may be necessary to facilitate reliable metabolic quantification.

Caitlin Fowler¹, Dan Madularu², Masoumeh Dehghani², Gabriel Devenyi², and Jamie Near^3
1Biological and Biomedical Engineering, McGill University - Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Verdun, QC, Canada, ²Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Verdun, QC, Canada, ³Psychiatry, McGill University - Douglas Hospital Research Centre, Montréal, QC, Canada

To better understand pathological aging, we must first have a thorough understanding of changes that occur in the brain during healthy aging. This project employs Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to characterize longitudinal changes in the neurochemical profile of healthy Fischer 344 rats. In addition to the commonly reported metabolites, nine macromolecular resonances were included in the basis set and quantified, based on parameterization of a group-averaged metabolite-nulled spectrum. For the first time, longitudinal age-related changes in metabolites and individual macromolecules were simultaneously characterized in the Fischer rat. Sex-specific differences were also identified in metabolites and macromolecules.

Rossella Canese¹, Gabriele De Luca², Ambra Dell'Orso³, Egidio Iorio¹, Mattea Chirico¹, Maria Elena Pisanu¹, Paola Fortini³, and Valeria Simonelli^3
1NMR and MRI unit, Core facilities, Istituto Superiore di Sanita', Rome, Italy, ²Oncology and Molecular Medicine Department, Istituto Superiore di Sanita', Rome, Italy, ³Environmental and Health department, Istituto Superiore di Sanita', Rome, Italy

Oxidative stress is implicated in the pathogenesis of cancer, neurodegeneration and aging. hMTH1 is a hydrolase able to protect cells by oxidative damage. Overexpression of hMTH1 in transgenic mice (hMTH1‐Tg) confers significant protection against neurodegeneration and motor impairment. In this study, we use the hMTH1‐Tg mouse model and we found that oxidative damage is able to affect brain metabolism and adipose organ composition and extension.  Moreover, we investigated the protective role of hMTH1-tg against an environmental oxidative stimulus like the assumption of a diet at high content of fat.

Wendy Oakden¹ and Greg J Stanisz^1,2,3
1Physical Sciences, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada, ²Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, ³Neurosurgery and Paediatric Neurosurgery, Medical University of Lublin, Lublin, Poland

Changes in metabolite levels as a result of treatment can be quite small. This study investigated the variability of MRS detectable metabolites so that the effects relating to the treatment would not be confounded by other experimental factors.  A four-way ANOVA was used to separate the effects of differences in housing conditions (single housing, pairs, or enriched environment) as well as age (5-15 weeks), strain (Long Evans vs Sprague Dawley), and SNR. Significant changes in MRS were observed due to age, strain, and SNR, but any changes due to housing conditions were small in comparison.

Zohaib Iqbal¹, Rajakumar Nagarajan², Manoj Sarma³, Andres Saucedo³, and Michael Albert Thomas^3
1Radiation Oncology, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, United States, ²Human Magnetic Resonance Center, UMass, Amherst, MA, United States, ³UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, United States

For decades, one-dimensional (1D) spectroscopy has aided in the diagnosis of several pathologies. However, 1D approaches suffer from severe spectral overlap, possibly limiting their application. Two-dimensional (2D) spectroscopy allows for greater spectral separation, and many studies have successfully quantified metabolites with the localized correlated spectroscopy (L-COSY). Here, we combine the L-COSY technique with a T2* weighted deconvolution (TIDE) approach and develop the TIDEL-COSY method. We show the capability of the novel TIDEL-COSY method and compare the apparent T2* values between healthy youths and adults for a variety of metabolites.

Jan Willem van der Veen¹, Corinde Wiers², and Jun Shen^3
1Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Core, NIMH, NIH, Bethesda, MD, United States, ²NIH, NIAAA, Bethesda, MD, United States, ³Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy Core, NIH, NIMH, Bethesda, MD, United States

Beta-Hydroxybutyrate (BHB) is a marker of metabolic ketosis in brain. To study ketogenic treatment spectral editing was developed to invert the signals in the 3.2-4.6 ppm spectral region for detecting BHB and co-edited signals. Using this spectral editing technique we found markedly elevated BHB signal in the human brain shortly after oral administration of 1,3-butanediol monoester of beta-hydroxybutyrate as compared to the control scan without consumption of the ketone ester.