Recent Progress in NMR Microscopy towards Cellular Imaging

Recent advances in NMR microscopy based on fundamental physical parameters and experimental factors are discussed. We consider fundamental resolution limits due to molecular diffusion and the experimental system bandwidth, as well as practical resolution limits arising from poor signal-to-noise ratio due to small imaging voxel size and finite line broadening due to signal attenuation brought about by diffusion. Several microscopic imaging pulse sequences are presented and applied to elucidating cellular imaging problems such as the cell lineage patterns in Xenopus laevis embryos. Experimental results obtained with 7.0 T NMR microscopy system are presented.