Water Specific MRI T1 Mapping for Evaluating Liver Inflammation Activity Grades in Rats With Methionine‐Choline‐Deficient Diet‐Induced Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

• Published in: Journal of magnetic resonance imaging 2022-11, Vol.56 (5), p.1429-1436
• Main Authors: Wan, Qian, Peng, Hao, Lyu, Jianxun, Liu, Feng, Cheng, Chuanli, Qiao, Yangzi, Deng, Jie, Zheng, Hairong, Wang, Yi, Zou, Chao, Liu, Xin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal models; Animals; Area Under Curve; Auditory discrimination; Biopsy; Choline; Diet; Fatty liver; Fibrosis; Field strength; Inflammation; Inflammation - diagnostic imaging; Liver; Liver - diagnostic imaging; Liver - pathology; Liver diseases; liver inflammation; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Males; Methionine; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - diagnostic imaging; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - pathology; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; Nutrient deficiency; Prospective Studies; Proton density (concentration); Protons; Quality; Racemethionine; Rats; Rodents; Statistical analysis; Statistical tests; Variance analysis; Water; water specific T1 mapping
• ISSN: 1053-1807; 1522-2586
• DOI: 10.1002/jmri.28131

Background Early detection and grading of liver inflammation are important for the management of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients. There is still lack of a noninvasive way for the inflammation characterization in NAFLD. Purpose To assess liver inflammation grades by water specific T1 (wT1) in a rat model. Study Type Prospective. Animal model A total of 65 male rats with methionine‐choline‐deficient diet‐induced NAFLD and 15 male normal rats as control. Field Strength/Sequence A 3 T; multiecho variable flip angle gradient echo sequence. Assessment The wT1 and proton density fat fraction were quantified. Inflammation and fibrosis were assessed histologically with H&E and Sirius red stained slices according to the nonalcoholic steatohepatitis scoring system. Inflammation grade was scored with G0/G1/G2/G3 as none/mild/moderate/severe inflammation in NALFD rats. G0 + G1 and G2 + G3 were combined as none‐to‐mild grade (GL) and moderate‐to‐severe grade (GH) inflammation groups. Statistical Tests Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Mann–Whitney U test, Spearman's correlation, and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis were performed. The areas under ROC (AUROC) was used for the diagnostic performance of wT1 in discriminating GH and GL. A P value