MRI measurement of alanine uptake in a mouse xenograft model of U-87 MG glioblastoma
- Magn Reson Imaging. 2022 Nov;93:189-194. doi: 10.1016/j.mri.2022.08.015.
- 1. Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea.
- 2. Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea; YUHS-KRIBB Medical Convergence Research Institute, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea.
- 3. Department of Radiology, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea; YUHS-KRIBB Medical Convergence Research Institute, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea; Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: [email protected].
- 4. Severance Biomedical Science Institute, College of Medicine, Yonsei University, Seoul 03722, Republic of Korea. Electronic address: [email protected].
The potential use of alanine as an MRI contrast agent was investigated. The relaxation properties of alanine solutions were measured at 9.4 T. The T2 relaxivity caused by the chemical exchange (R2ex) between amine protons and water protons was 0.10 mM-1 s-1 at 37 °C. As a demonstration, alanine uptake in a mouse xenograft model of U-87 MG glioblastoma was measured using MRI, and was compared with immunohistochemistry staining of ASCT2, a transporter that imports Amino acids into Cancer cells. Statistically significant (p = 0.0079) differences in ASCT2 distribution were found between regions that show strong and weak alanine uptake in MRI. To better understand the influence of perfusion, the effect of ASCT2 inhibition on the alanine uptake in MRI was investigated, and dynamic contrast enhanced MRI was compared with alanine MRI.