Use of BOLD MRI to Study Muscle Microvascular Function and Dysfunction

Introduction Skeletal muscle is the body’s largest organ and is essential to many aspects of human physiology, including movement, glucose uptake and storage, thermogenesis, and total body water balance. MRI methods allow investigators to assess many aspects of muscle structure and function. A key point of focus for this abstract and presentation will be the muscle microvasculature, the proper function of which is essential to all of the activities noted. The purposes of this abstract and presentation are 1) to describe the changes to muscle microvascular structure and function that occur in obesity and Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM) and 2) to describe the use of BOLD MRI-based methods for studying muscle microvascular function in obesity and diabetes.