Paediatrics Publications
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
11-1-2021
Journal
Journal of magnetic resonance imaging : JMRI
Volume
54
Issue
5
First Page
1404
Last Page
1414
URL with Digital Object Identifier
https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.05.429612
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Alterations in glycolysis are central to the increasing incidence of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), highlighting a need for in vivo, non-invasive technologies to understand the development of hepatic metabolic aberrations.
PURPOSE: To use hyperpolarized magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) and proton density fat fraction (PDFF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to investigate the effects of a chronic, life-long exposure to the Western diet (WD) in an animal model resulting in NAFLD; to investigate the hypothesis that exposure to the WD will result in NAFLD in association with altered pyruvate metabolism.
STUDY TYPE: Prospective.
ANIMAL MODEL: Twenty-eight male guinea pigs weaned onto a control diet (N = 14) or WD (N = 14).
FIELD STRENGTH/SEQUENCE: 3 T; T1-weighted gradient echo, T2-weighted spin-echo, three-dimensional gradient multi-echo fat-water separation (IDEAL-IQ), and broadband point-resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) chemical-shift sequences.
ASSESSMENT: Median PDFF was calculated in the liver and hind limbs. [1-
STATISTICAL TESTS: Unpaired Student's t-tests were used to determine differences in measurements between the two diet groups. The Pearson correlation coefficient was calculated to determine correlations between measurements.
RESULTS: Life-long WD consumption resulted in significantly higher liver PDFF and elevated triglyceride content in the liver. The WD group exhibited a decreased TTP for lactate production, and ex vivo analysis highlighted increased liver lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity.
DATA CONCLUSION: PDFF MRI results suggest differential fat deposition patterns occurring in animals fed a life-long WD characteristic of lean, or lacking excessive subcutaneous fat, NAFLD. The decreased liver lactate TTP and increased ex vivo LDH activity suggest lipid accumulation occurs in association with a shift from oxidative metabolism to anaerobic glycolytic metabolism in WD-exposed livers.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 2 TECHNICAL EFFICACY STAGE: 1.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
