Imaging redox status using magnetic resonance techniques

There are many redox reactions to maintain the normal physiological conditions in the living body. A breakdown of the redox balance such as an overproduction of reactive oxygen/ nitrogen species and a decrease antioxidant defense may lead to oxidative stress. It can also induce many pathological conditions such as neurological disorders, inflammation, cancer, and ageing. Imaging of the tissue redox status could have one of the markers for drug discovery and clinical applications for novel diagnosis. Nitroxyl radicals have been utilized as a redox sensitive contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-MRI. Recently, we developed home-made DNP-MRI using the circularly transporting system of a sample for high-sensitive and redox analysis based on the anatomical structure by MRI. In this report, we demonstrate the application of the nitroxyl radical to magnetic resonance technique for monitoring the tissue redox status non-invasively.