OBSERVATION OF A H-1 DOUBLE-QUANTUM FILTERED SIGNAL OF WATER IN BIOLOGICAL TISSUES

The observation of a H-1 double quantum filtered (DQF) NMR signal of w ater in bovine sciatic nerve, bovine articular cartilage, rat tail ten don, and rat brain is reported. The origin of this signal in rat tail tendon was found to be a result of residual dipolar interaction betwee n water protons and macromolecular protons. The dependence of the widt h of the H-1 DQF spectra on the orientation indicated that in rat tail tendon the effective director of the residual dipolar interaction is parallel to the collagen fibers. H-1 DQF NMR may be applied in imaging where the contrast obtained is related to the degree of order in the tissue.