Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Analysis of Diabetes Biomarker

Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Analysis of Diabetes Biomarker Matthew Micsa, Dr. Dan Xiao Energy is required for the normal functioning of organs in the body. In energy metabolism, glucose is the most significant source of energy in all organisms. The pancreas produces insulin which helps control blood glucose levels by signalling the liver, muscle and fat cells to take in glucose. Diabetes is classified by increased levels of plasma glucose where blood plasma proteins are modified by a non-enzymatic reaction called glycation. Albumin, a protein produced by the liver, is one of the most abundant plasma proteins and heavily glycated in diabetes. It can be concluded that in higher glucose concentrations, albumin levels drop. Ovalbumin, a class of albumin, is the most abundant type of proteins found in egg whites. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a non-invasive medical imaging technique used in radiology to explore the anatomy and functions of the body. Quantitative analysis of magnetic resonance signal lifetimes could provide molecular scale information. Glucose glycation on ovalbumin proteins has been investigated by quantitative measurement of the multi-dimensional signal lifetime correlations. Initial results show that the addition of glucose influences the signal measurements of the proteins based on statistical behaviour. The results provide insights in designing an MRI experiment to diagnose patients with diabetes