A holistic view of disease – Insulin resistance, T2D and Alzheimers

It is well known that glucose and fatty acid substrate handling and utilization is of great importance in metabolic disease. This can also have consequences for the end organ damage affecting liver, heart, kidneys, but also muscle and brain.

Whole body 4D-PET of human substrate utilization

Antaros Medical has, based on its previous methodology development in whole body MRI for body composition, developed whole body 4D-PET methods to study glucose and fatty acid utilization on a tissue specific level utilizing 18F-FDG and 18F-Fatty acid tracers. Standardization of the glucose levels is done by combining the hyperinsulinemic euglycemic clamp technique with dynamic 4D whole-body PET/MRI to quantify uptake rates of the glucose analogue 18F-FDG in every voxel of the body. These studies have led to increased interest of substrate utilization also in the brain. This is exemplified by the recent review articles in Neurobiology where our unique images ended up on the front page of the journal.

“Using medical imaging, we got insights into the overlap between insulin resistance, diabetes and Alzheimer’s using medical imaging. We focused on glucose metabolism, mitochondrial function and lipid metabolism and saw several similarities in the effects that these seemingly disparate diseases have on the brain, and that some of the abnormalities are reversed by metabolic interventions.”

Kerstin Heurling Imaging Director PET at Antaros Medical

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