Metabolism of Hyperpolarized 1-C-Lactate in Living Breast Cancer Cell Cultures

Introduction The recent development of a technique to enhance C NMR polarizations by ≥10,000x may allow us to follow metabolic processes non-invasively with unprecedented sensitivity and temporal resolution [1]. The importance of such development for in vivo metabolic imaging is clear and many important works have been done showing the utility of hyperpolarized metabolic imaging both in cancer and in cardiac disease. However, in vivo metabolic studies may not sufficient in order to understand the underlying cellular processes that control the altered metabolism. For this purpose we have developed a bioreactor, allowing hyperpolarized metabolic measurements on living cell cultures maintained under well-controlled conditions. We have previously applied this system to the study of pyruvate metabolism in T47D human breast cancer cells, and were able to characterize the kinetic parameters [2]. In this study we explore the feasibility of using hyperpolarized 1-C-Lactate as a biomarker to understand the glycolytic phenotype of cancer cells.