Assessment of glycosaminoglycan concentration changes in the intervertebral disc via chemical exchange saturation transfer

Galit Saar, Boyang Zhang, Wen Ling, Ravinder R. Regatte, Gil Navon, Alexej Jerschow*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

68 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this study, it is shown that the chemical exchange saturation transfer (CEST) method for hydroxyl protons can be used to detect changes in glycosaminoglycan (GAG) concentration in the intervertebral disc. The method, termed gagCEST, was demonstrated ex vivo by correlating the CEST effect with the fixed charge density (FCD) of the nucleus pulposus (NP), as well as by correlating tissue CEST images with their corresponding 23Na images. Incubation of five NP samples with trypsin produced samples with varying GAG content (n=19). A good correlation was found between the -OH CEST effect and FCD, as well as with the N-acetyl signal amplitude. gagCEST imagesinvitro further illustrated the amount of detail obtainable from this contrast mechanism when compared with conventional imaging. The large concentration of GAG and the relatively long T 1 of water in NP make the method sensitive, in particular, for the assessment of GAG depletion in this tissue. It is the loss of GAG in NP that indicates the early stage of disc degeneration.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)255-261
Number of pages7
JournalNMR in Biomedicine
Volume25
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2012

Funding

FundersFunder number
European Commission
Seventh Framework Programme201842
National Center for Research ResourcesC06RR016572
National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin DiseasesR21AR055724

    Keywords

    • Chemical exchange saturation transfer
    • Glycosaminoglycan
    • Intervertebral disc
    • MRI
    • Nucleus pulposus
    • Proteoglycans

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