Development of high magnetic field MRI techniques is hampered by the significant artifacts produced by B0 field inhomogeneities in the excited slices. A technique, gradient-echo slice excitation profile imaging (GESEPI), is presented for recovering the signal lost caused by intravoxel phase dispersion in T2*-weighted images. This technique superimposes an incremental gradient offset on the slice refocusing gradient to sample k-space over the full range of spatial frequencies of the excitation profile. A third Fourier transform of the initial two-dimensional image set generates an image set in which the artifacts produced by the low-order B0 inhomogeneity field gradients in the sample are separated and removed from the high-order microscopic field gradients responsible for T2* contrast. Application to high field brain imaging, at 3.0 T for human and at 9.4 T for immature rat imaging demonstrates the significant improvement in quality of the T2*-weighted contrast images.
This study was designed to compare the effects of dietary supplementation with nondigestible carbohydrates, differing in fermentability by colonic bacteria, on hepatic steatosis in growing obese Zucker rats. Male Zucker fa/fa rats were divided into three groups: a control group that received the basal diet, a fructan group that received 10 g highly fermented Synergy 1/100 g diet and a cellulose group that received 10 g poorly fermented Vivapur Microcrystalline cellulose/100 g diet. Rats consuming fructan had a lower energy intake, a lower body weight and less triacylglycerol accumulation in the liver as assessed in vivo by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and ex vivo by biochemical and histochemical analysis compared with the control and/or cellulose groups. The high fermentation of fructans compared with cellulose was reflected by greater cecal contents and by a twofold greater propionate concentration in the portal vein of rats fed fructan compared with those fed cellulose. By measuring the capacity of hepatocytes isolated from liver of Zucker rats to synthesize triglycerides or total lipids from different precursors, we showed that propionate, at the concentrations measured in the portal vein of rats treated with fructan, selectively decreased the incorporation of acetate into total lipids, a phenomenon that could contribute, along with the lower energy intake, to less triglyceride accumulation in the liver of obese Zucker rats fed dietary fructans.
The creatine kinase reaction has been studied by 31P NMR in exercising human calf muscle. Quantitative analysis of high energy phosphates and saturation transfer study of the creatine kinase flux in the direction of ATP synthesis (Vfor) were performed at rest and during exercise. As expected, exercise induced a [PCr] decrease (from 28.5 +/- 0.9 to 21.9 +/- 1.5 mM, P < 0.01) matched by a Pi increase (from 4.5 +/- 0.2 to 8.9 +/- 1.8 mM, P = 0.06). pHi and [ATP] remained unchanged. Vfor did not change from rest (12.4 +/- 0.9 mM s(-1)) to moderate exercise and decreased at the highest exercise level (8.4 +/- 1.4 mM s(-1), P = 0.006). This observation differs from the prediction of the creatine kinase rate equation, showing an increase in the flux with exercise intensity. Computations suggest that this discrepancy arises from metabolite compartmentalization and/or from the reaction kinetics of a dead end complex stabilized by planar anions.
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