Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) can produce spatial maps of metabolites detected by spectroscopic imaging, but its practical use is often limited by its relatively low sensitivity. This low sensitivity of in vivo magnetic resonance imaging and spectroscopy methods stems from the small degree of nuclear magnetization achievable at body temperatures and reasonable magnetic field strengths. However, this limitation can be overcome by the use of dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) to greatly enhance the in vitro magnetization of liquid substrates, which are subsequently injected to probe in vivo metabolism using MRSI1,2,3,4. DNP is capable of enhancing the magnetization of most nuclei with non-zero nuclear spin and has been used to increase in vivo MRSI sensitivity of 13C-enriched compounds such as pyruvate5,6, bicarbonate7,8, fumarate9, lactate10, glutamine11, and others by more than four orders of magnitude12. Its applications include imaging of vascular disease13,14,15, organ perfusion13,16,17,18, cancer detection1,19,20,21,22, tumor staging23,24, and quantification of therapeutic response2,6,23,24,25,26.
Slow spin-lattice relaxation is essential for in vivo detection with MRSI. Spin-lattice relaxation times (T1s) on the order of tens of seconds are possible for nuclei with low gyromagnetic ratios within small molecules in solution. Several physical factors influence the transfer of energy between a nuclear spin transition and its environment (lattice) leading to relaxation, including the magnetic field strength, temperature, and molecular conformation27. Dipolar relaxation is reduced in molecules for carbon positions with no protons directly attached, and deuteration of dissolution media can further reduce intermolecular dipolar relaxation. Unfortunately, deuterated solvents have limited abilities to extend in vivo relaxation. Increased relaxation of carbonyls or carboxylic acids (such as pyruvate) can occur at high magnetic field strengths due to chemical shift anisotropy. The presence of paramagnetic impurities from the fluid path during dissolution after polarization can cause rapid relaxation and need to be avoided or eliminated using chelators.
Very little data exist for the relaxation of 13C-containing compounds at low fields, where spin-lattice relaxation could be significantly faster. However, it is important to measure T1 at low fields to understand relaxation during preparation of the agent used for in vivo imaging, since the hyperpolarized contrast agents are usually dispensed from the DNP apparatus near or at the earth’s field. Additional physical factors such as 13C-enriched substrate concentration, solution pH, buffers and temperature also influence relaxation, and consequently have an effect on the formulation of the agent. All these factors are essential in the determination of key parameters in optimizing the DNP dissolution process, and the calculation of the magnitude of signal loss that occurs in transportation of the sample from the DNP apparatus to the imaging magnet.
Nuclear magnetic resonance dispersion (NMRD) measurements, i.e., T1 measurements, as a function of magnetic field are typically acquired using an NMR spectrometer. To acquire these measurements, a shuttling method could be used where the sample is first shuttled out of the spectrometer to relax at some field determined by its position in the fringe field of the magnet28,29,30 and then rapidly transferred back into the NMR magnet to measure its remaining magnetization. By repeating this process at the same point in the magnetic field but with increasing periods of relaxation, a relaxation curve can be obtained, which can then be analyzed to estimate T1.
We use an alternative technique known as fast field-cycling relaxometry31,32,33 to acquire our NMRD data. We have modified a commercial field-cycling relaxometer (see Table of Materials), for T1 measurements of solutions containing hyperpolarized 13C nuclei. Compared with the shuttle method, field-cycling enables this relaxometer to systematically acquire NMRD data over a smaller range of magnetic fields (0.25 mT to 1 T). This is accomplished by rapidly changing the magnetic field itself, not the sample location in the magnetic field. Therefore, a sample can be magnetized at a high field strength, "relaxed" at a lower field strength, and then measured by acquisition of a free-induction-decay at a fixed field (and Larmor frequency) to maximize signal. This means that the sample temperature can be controlled during the measurement, and the NMR probe does not need to be tuned at each relaxation field promoting automatic acquisition over the entire magnetic field range.
Focusing our efforts to the effects of dispensing and transporting the hyperpolarized solutions at low magnetic fields, this work presents a detailed methodology to measure the spin-lattice relaxation time of hyperpolarized 13C-pyruvate using fast field-cycling relaxometry for magnetic fields in the range of 0.237 mT to 0.705 T. The main results of using this methodology have been previously presented for [1-13C]pyruvate34 and 13C-enriched sodium and cesium bicarbonate35 where other factors such as radical concentration and dissolution pH have also been studied.