Abstract
Lithium is widely used in psychotherapy. The 6Li isotope has a long intrinsic longitudinal relaxation time T1 on the order of minutes, making it an ideal candidate for hyperpolarization experiments. In the present study we demonstrated that lithium-6 can be readily hyperpolarized within 30 min, while retaining a long polarization decay time on the order of a minute. We used the intrinsically long relaxation time for the detection of 500 nM contrast agent in vitro. Hyperpolarized lithium-6 was administered to the rat and its signal retained a decay time on the order of 70 sec in vivo. Localization experiments imply that the lithium signal originated from within the brain and that it was detectable up to 5 min after administration. We conclude that the detection of submicromolar contrast agents using hyperpolarized NMR nuclei such as 6Li may provide a novel avenue for molecular imaging.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1489-1493 |
Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Magnetic Resonance in Medicine |
Volume | 61 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jun 2009 |
Keywords
- DNP
- Hyperpolarization
- Lithium-6
- Relaxivity