31P MRS Study of Hyperbaric Oxygenation Effects on Phosphate Metabolism of Normal Human Brain

For the first time, the effects of one hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) session on cellular phosphate metabolite levels and pH were investigated in vivo. 31 P magnetic resonance spectroscopy was used in this study. The optimized protocol of Image-Selected Invivo Spectroscopy pulse sequence for 31 P MRS was applied to increase SNR of ATP resonances. An activation of energy metabolism that manifested in the decrease of creatine phosphate and pH int after an HBO session is revealed. The growth of the α-ATP signal is elucidated as well, while other ATP resonances remain unchanged. This might reflect the increase in nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) concentration. The rise of its level as well as the detected creatine phosphate expenses immediately after HBO may denote the activation of fast NAD synthesis pathways.