NMR MICROSCOPY OF SINGLE NEURONS USING SPIN-ECHO AND LINE NARROWED 2DFT IMAGING

NMR microimages of single neural cells were acquired at 500 MHz using a conventional spin echo pulse sequence and a line-narrowing sequence that eliminates susceptibility effects. The data show that any contrib ution to the measured T-2 relaxation rate arising from diffusion in lo cal field inhomogeneities using spin echo sequences at high fields and high spatial resolution is relatively small. We conclude that the mea sured T-2 difference between the nucleus and cytoplasm in these cells represents primarily a true T-2 relaxation effect arising from the int eractions of water with macromolecules in the two compartments and doe s not result from microsusceptibility differences, These observations have implications regarding water compartmentation in single cells and the interpretation of the MR characteristics of tissues in vivo.