Implantable NMR Microcoils in Rats: A New Tool for Exploring Tumor Metabolism at Sub-Microliter Scale?

The aim of this study was to evaluate the potential of a miniaturized implantable nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) coil to acquire in vivo proton NMR spectra in sub-microliter regions of interest and to obtain metabolic information using magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in these small volumes. For this purpose, the NMR microcoils were implanted in the right cortex of healthy rats and in C6 glioma-bearing rats. The dimensions of the microcoil were 450 micrometers wide and 3 mm long. The MRS acquisitions were performed at 7 Tesla using volume coil for RF excitation and microcoil for signal reception. The detection volume of the microcoil was measured equal to 450 nL. A gain in sensitivity equal to 76 was found in favor of implanted microcoil as compared to external surface coil. Nine resonances from metabolites were assigned in the spectra acquired in healthy rats (n = 5) and in glioma-bearing rat (n = 1). The differences in relative amplitude of choline, lactate and creatine resonances observed in glioma-bearing animal were in agreement with published findings on this tumor model. In conclusion, the designed implantable microcoil is suitable for in vivo MRS and can be used for probing the metabolism in localized and very small regions of interest in a tumor.