In vivo 1 H NMR spectroscopy of the developing rat hippocampus

Methods: Neonatal rats (n = 5, 7-28 days old) were anesthetized by -chloralose and fixed to a specifically designed holder. The volume of interest (3 x 2 x 4 mm) was centered in the left hippocampus. H NMR spectra were measured at 400 MHz (9.4T) on a Varian/Magnex spectrometer using an ultra-short echo-time STEAM sequence (TE = 2 ms) with VAPOR water suppression and outer volume saturation [5]. Firstand second-order shimming was performed with a fully adiabatic version of FASTMAP [6]. Metabolite concentrations including macromolecules were quantified by LCModel as described previously [7] and RF power calibration was used to correct for coil loading effects.