Speaker: Dr. Carrie Chiu, Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of Diagnostic Radiology, The University of Hong Kong

Date: Wednesday, 20 July 2016
Time: 16:00-18:00
Venue: Room 802, Meng Wah Complex 8/F, HKU

Abstract 

Aging of the human brain is the common predisposing factor of neurodegenerative diseases. It is the primary risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease and other prevalent neurodegenerative disorders. Proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (¹H-MRS) is a non-invasive clinical tool which can measure in vivo metabolite levels by using proton signals from the metabolites.

N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) and Glx [summation of glutamate (Glu) and glutamine (Gln)] are examples of metabolites which can be measured and quantified by ¹H-MRS. NAA is a well-known marker specific for mature neurons. Glx, which has an interesting role in aging, could be used as a central measure for glutamatergic neurotransmission by assessing the entire brain pool of Glu and Gln. Both NAA and Glx have been suggested for measures of energy metabolism, and can serve as neurochemical fingerprints of neural activites in the brain.

As the anterior cingulate cortex has recently become a focus for aging research because of its implicated role in attention and mood regulation, we evaluated any changes in neural tissue composition with aging, as measured by absolute quantification of metabolites such as choline, creatine, NAA, Glx, and myo-inositol using ¹H-MRS at 3 T. The findings and future directions will be discussed from various perspectives.