Metabolic Studies of Tumor Cells Using [1‐13C] Pyruvate Hyperpolarized by Means of PHIP‐Side Arm Hydrogenation

The kinetics of metabolic processes can be assessed, in real time by means of MR hyperpolarized (HP) metabolites. [1‐13C]pyruvate, hyperpolarized by means of d‐DNP, is, by far, the substrate most widely applied to the investigation of several pathologies characterized by deregulated glycolytic metabolic networks, including cancer. Hyperpolarization of [1‐13C]pyruvate by means of the cost effective, fast and easy to handle PHIP‐SAH (para‐hydrogen induced polarization‐side arm hydrogenation) method opens‐up a pathway for the application of HP metabolites to a wide range of cancer‐related studies. Herein, we report the first application of PHIP‐SAH hyperpolarized [1‐13C]pyruvate in the investigation of upregulated glycolysis in two murine breast cancer cell lines (168FARN and 4T1). The results obtained using HP pyruvate have been validated with a conventional biochemical assay and are coherent with previously‐reported lactate dehydrogenase activity measured in those cells.