Testing the efficacy of therapeutic approaches with in vivo 1H MRS of intramyocellular lipids in the rat skeletal muscle

Introduction In recent years, intramyocellular lipids (IMCL) have been identified as important markers for insulin resistance in metabolic disorders, such as type 2 diabetes [1,2]. As a consequence, the non-invasive assessment of such triglycerides by localized proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (H-MRS) in animal models has evolved to a valuable tool for the characterisation of new therapeutic approaches [3,4]. In addition to IMCL, which accumulates as droplets in the cytoplasm of muscle cells, extramyocellular lipids (EMCL) are stored as interstitial adipocyte triglycerides in sheet-like structures between the muscle fibers [5]. In this contribution, we present the application of in vivo MRS to evaluate the efficacy of Rimonabant treatment on the muscle lipid content and its correlation with biochemical data.