Assessment of cardiac and skeletal muscle metabolites using 1H-MRS and chemical-shift encoded magnetic resonance imaging: Impact of diabetes, RAGE, and DIAPH1.

Diabetes affects metabolism and metabolite concentrations in multiple organs. Previous preclinical studies have shown that receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE, gene symbol Ager) and its cytoplasmic domain binding partner, Diaphanous-1 (DIAPH1), are key mediators of diabetic micro- and macro-vascular complications. In this study, we used ¹H-Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and chemical shift encoded (CSE) Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) to investigate the metabolite and water-fat fraction in the heart and hind limb muscle in a murine model of type 1 diabetes (T1D) and to determine if the metabolite changes in the heart and hind limb are influenced by (a) deletion of Ager or Diaph1 and (b) pharmacological blockade of RAGE-DIAPH1 interaction in mice. Nine cohorts of male mice, with six mice per cohort, were used: wild type non-diabetic control mice (WT-NDM), WT-diabetic (WT-DM) mice, Ager knockout non-diabetic (RKO-NDM) and diabetic mice (RKO-DM), Diaph1 knockout non-diabetic (DKO-NDM), and diabetic mice (DKO-DM), WT-NDM mice treated with vehicle, WT-DM mice treated with vehicle, and WT-DM mice treated with RAGE229 (antagonist of RAGE-DIAPH1 interaction). A Point Resolved Spectroscopy (PRESS) sequence for ¹H-MRS, and multi-echo gradient recalled echo (GRE) for CSE were employed. Triglycerides, and free fatty acids in the heart and hind limb obtained from MRS and MRI were compared to those measured using biochemical assays. Two-sided t-test, non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis Test, and one-way ANOVA were employed for statistical analysis. We report that the results were well-correlated with significant differences using MRI and biochemical assays between WT-NDM and WT-DM, as well as within the non-diabetic groups, and within the diabetic groups. Deletion of Ager or Diaph1, or treatment with RAGE229 attenuated diabetes-associated increases in triglycerides in the heart and hind limb in mice. These results suggest that the employment of ¹H-MRS/MRI is a feasible non-invasive modality to monitor metabolic dysfunction in T1D and the metabolic consequences of interventions that block RAGE and DIAPH1.