Assessment of glycosaminoglycan concentration in vivo by chemical exchange-dependent saturation transfer (gagCEST)
- *Chemistry Department, New York University, New York, NY 10003;
- ‡Center for Biomedical Imaging, Radiology Department, New York University School of Medicine, New York, NY 10003; and
- †School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
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Edited by Robert G. Shulman, Yale Magnetic Resonance Research Center, New Haven, CT, and approved December 20, 2007 (received for review August 15, 2007)
Abstract
Glycosaminogycans (GAGs) are involved in numerous vital functions in the human body. Mapping the GAG concentration in vivo is desirable for the diagnosis and monitoring of a number of diseases such as osteoarthritis, which affects millions of individuals. GAG loss in cartilage is typically an initiating event in osteoarthritis. Another widespread pathology related to GAG is intervertebral disk degeneration. Currently existing techniques for GAG monitoring, such as delayed gadolinium-enhanced MRI contrast (dGEMRIC), T 1 ρ, and 23Na MRI, have some practical limitations. We show that by exploiting the exchangeable protons of GAG one may directly measure the localized GAG concentration in vivo with high sensitivity and therefore obtain a powerful diagnostic MRI method.
Footnotes
- §To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: alexej.jerschow{at}nyu.edu
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Author contributions: G.N. and A.J. designed research; W.L. and R.R.R. performed research; W.L., R.R.R., G.N., and A.J. analyzed data; and W.L. and A.J. wrote the paper.
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Conflict of interest statement: The authors have filed a provisional patent application.
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This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
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↵ ¶ Hubbard PL, Närväinen J, Kauppinen RA, Morris GA, Proceedings of the 15th Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, May 19–25, 2007, Berlin, Germany, p 3464.
- © 2008 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA
