Year: 2011
Type: article
Abstract: In the last 25 years, (13)C MRS has been established as the only noninvasive method for the measurement of glutamate neurotransmission and cell-specific neuroenergetics. Although technically and experimentally challenging, (13)C MRS has already provided important new information on the relationship between neuroenergetics and neuronal function, the energy cost of brain function, the high neuronal activity in the resting brain state and how neuroenergetics and neurotransmitter cycling are altered in neurological and psychiatric disease. In this article, the current state of (13)C MRS as it is applied to the study of neuroenergetics and neurotransmitter cycling in humans is reviewed. The focus is predominantly on recent findings in humans regarding metabolic pathways, applications to clinical research and the technical status of the method. Results from in vivo (13)C MRS studies in animals are discussed from the standpoint of the validation of MRS measurements of neuroenergetics and neurotransmitter cycling, and where they have helped to identify key questions to address in human research. Controversies concerning the relationship between neuroenergetics and neurotransmitter cycling and factors having an impact on the accurate determination of fluxes through mathematical modeling are addressed. We further touch upon different (13)C-labeled substrates used to study brain metabolism, before reviewing a number of human brain diseases investigated using (13)C MRS. Future technological developments are discussed that will help to overcome the limitations of (13)C MRS, with special attention given to recent developments in hyperpolarized (13)C MRS.
Source: NMR in Biomedicine
DOI: 10.1002/nbm.1772
Institution: Yale University
Language: English
Subfield: Radiology, Nuclear Medicine and Imaging
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, National Institute on Aging, National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering
Awards: Role of Acetate in Heavy Drinking, Ethanol as Fuel for the Brain in Rats, G133548204, GABA Effects of Nicotine in Men and Women, Cerebral Metabolic Flux Mapping Using Oxygen 17 NMR, G3742209472, G374698388, Fully Compensated Dynamic Shim System for In Vivo MRI and MRS, G432084974, G450198149, Ex Vivo Assay for In Situ Brain-Wide Mapping of Glutamate/GABA Metabolism, G5691526823, 13C MRS Studies of Human Brain Mitochondrial Metabolism in Healthy Aging, G883917070, G9000077323, G9000354123
OpenAlex ID: W2147937603