Study of human kidneys prior to transplantation by phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance

Abstract

The possible applications of phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) to medicine are only just beginning to be explored¹. It is a noninvasive method of analysing many aspects of energy metabolism of living intact cells because it can be used to detect adenosine triphosphate and diphosphate (ATP and ADP), phosphorylated sugar (sugar P) including adenosine monophosphate (AMP) and inorganic phosphate (P_i)^2,3. Furthermore, the intracellular pH can also be determined simultaneously by measuring the frequency of the P_i peak. This technique has been used to determine adenine nucleotide content and intrarenal pH in kidneys from experimental animals, and has contributed to an understanding of the effects of ischaemia and preservation for transplantation^4,5. With the development of a new wide-bore (20 cm) magnet (Oxford Research System, TMR-32), it is now possible to examine whole human kidneys in vitro and human limbs in vivo.