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Hepatic lipid composition differs between ob/ob and ob/+ control mice as determined by using in vivo localized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy

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Magnetic Resonance Materials in Physics, Biology and Medicine Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Object

Hepatic lipid accumulation is associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and the metabolic syndrome constitutes an increasing medical problem. In vivo proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H MRS) allows the assessment of hepatic lipid levels noninvasively and also yields information on the fat composition due to its high spectral resolution.

Materials and methods

We applied 1H MRS at 9.4T to study lipid content and composition in eight leptin-deficient ob/ob mice as a model of obesity and in four lean ob/+ control mice at 24 weeks of age. PRESS sequence was used. For accurate estimation of signal intensity, differences in relaxation behavior of individual signals were accounted for each mouse individually. Also, in order to minimize spectral degrading due to motion artifacts, respiration gating was applied.

Results

Significant differences between ob/ob and ob/+ control mice were found in both lipid content and composition. The mean chain length was found to be significantly longer in ob/ob mice with a higher fraction of monounsaturated lipids.

Conclusion

1H MRS enables accurate assessment in hepatic lipids in mice, which is attractive for mechanistic studies of altered metabolism given the large number of genetically engineered mouse models available.

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Abbreviations

CRLB:

The Cramer–Rao lower bound

fMUL:

Fraction of monounsaturated lipids

FOV:

Field-of-view

fPUL:

Fraction of polyunsaturated lipids

fSL:

Fraction of saturated lipids

fUL:

Fraction of unsaturated lipids

fLM:

Fractional lipid mass

MCL:

Mean chain length

NA:

Number of averages

ob/ob:

Lepob/Lepob

ob/+:

Lepob/+

SL:

Saturated lipid component

TG:

Triglyceride

ULtotal :

Total unsaturated lipid component

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Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge funding by the Swiss National Science Foundation and SystemsX.ch. We also thank René Tschaggelar and Nikola Cesarovic for excellent technical assistance during various aspects of this study. We especially thank Prof. Peter Boesiger for providing kind access to LCModel and Dr. Anke Henning for advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Biomedical Engineering UZH/ETH, University and ETH Zurich, HIT E22.4, Wolfgang-Pauli-Strasse 27, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

    Qiong Ye & Markus Rudin

  2. Institute of Cell Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Carsten Friedrich Danzer

  3. Laboratory of Translational Nutritional Biology, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Christian Wolfrum

  4. Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Markus Rudin

  5. Institute for Biomedical Engineering UZH/ETH, University and ETH Zurich, 8093, Zurich, Switzerland

    Alexander Fuchs

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  1. Qiong Ye
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  2. Carsten Friedrich Danzer
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  3. Alexander Fuchs
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  4. Christian Wolfrum
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  5. Markus Rudin
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Correspondence to Markus Rudin.

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Ye, Q., Danzer, C.F., Fuchs, A. et al. Hepatic lipid composition differs between ob/ob and ob/+ control mice as determined by using in vivo localized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Magn Reson Mater Phy 25, 381–389 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-012-0310-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10334-012-0310-2

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