Monitoring intracellular metabolism by nuclear magnetic resonance

This chapter discusses the monitoring intracellular metabolism by nuclear magnetic resonance. MRS (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) and positron emission tomography (PET) scanning are the only two methods employed in radiology that are basically metabolic in their mode of operation. This chapter discusses various methods for NMR studies of intracellular metabolism.³¹p and ¹³C NMR spectroscopy have been used to monitor bioenergetics and phospholipid metabolism of several human tumor cell lines, both embedded in gel threads and subcutaneously implanted in nude mice. It is important to note that the ³¹p spectra obtained for the same cell line in both of these two environments— namely, perfused cells embedded in basement membrane gel thread and tumor in a nude mouse are very similar. This to some extent justifies the use of cell perfusion to study intracellular metabolism as being relevant to the in vivo situation. The applications that follow will focus on the studies of bioenergetics and phospholipid metabolism.