A Novel PET Probe for Brown Adipose Tissue Imaging in Rodents

Purpose: Brown adipose tissue (BAT) has emerged as a promising target to counteract obesity and its associated metabolic disorders. However, the detection of this tissue remains one of the major roadblocks. Procedures: In this study, we assess the use of BODIPY 1 as a positron emission tomography (PET) imaging agent to image BAT depots in vivo in two mouse phenotypes: obesity-resistant BALB/c mice and the obesity-prone C57BL/6 mice. [18F]BODIPY 1 is a radioactive dye that processed both radioactivity for PET imaging and fluorescence signal for in vitro mechanism study. Results: Through the co-staining of cancer cells with BODIPY 1 and MitoTracker, we found BODIPY 1 mainly accumulated in cell mitochondria in vitro. Fluorescence imaging of primary brown and white adipocytes further confirmed BODIPY 1 had significantly higher accumulation in primary brown adipocytes compared with primary white adipocytes. We evaluated [18F]BODIPY 1 for BAT imaging in both obesity-resistant BALB/c mice and obesity-prone C57BL/6 mice. Indeed, [18F]BODIPY 1 was efficiently taken up by BAT in both mouse genotypes (6.40 ± 1.98 %ID/g in obesity-resistant BALB/c mice (n = 8) and 5.37 ± 0.82 %ID/g in obesity-prone C57BL/6 mice (n = 7)). Although norepinephrine stimulation could increase the absolute BAT uptake, the enhancement is not significant in both genotypes (p > 0.05) at current sample size. These results suggest BAT uptake of [18F]BODIPY 1 may be independent of BAT thermogenic activity. As a comparison, 2-deoxy-2-[18F]fluoro-d-glucose ([18F]FDG) PET imaging was performed in obesity-resistant BALB/c mice. Significantly increased uptake was observed in adrenergically activated BAT (10.08 ± 2.52 %ID/g, n = 3) but not in inactive BAT (3.803 ± 0.70 %ID/g; n = 3). Because [18F]BODIPY 1 maintained its fluorescent property, BAT tissue was excised and studied using fluorescence microscopy. Strong fluorescence signal was observed in BAT mouse that was injected with BODIPY 1. Conclusions: Unlike [18F]FDG, [18F]BODIPY 1 showed prominent accumulation in BAT under both inactive and stimulated status. [18F]BODIPY 1 may serve as a valuable BAT PET agent to possibly assess BAT mitochondria density, thus BAT thermogenic capacity after further evaluation

Synthesis of 18F–19F isotope exchange-ready zwitterionic aryltrifluoroborate bioconjugates

LDM TEPInternational audienc

Fluoride Trapping and Release with Boranes: Application to 18F-Radiochemistry

LDM TEPInternational audienc

Fluoride Trapping and Release with Boranes: Application to 18F-Radiochemistry

LDM TEPInternational audienc

Cationic boranes as attractive tools for radiochemistry with fluorine-18

LDM TEPInternational audienc

Cationic Boranes and Trifluoroborates: attractive alternate introduction of 18F

LDM TEPInternational audienc

18F-labelling innovations and their potential for clinical application

An impressive variety of new methodologies for the preparation of 18F-labelled tracers and ligands has appeared over the last decade. Most strategies of the newly developed radiofluorination methods predominantly aim at products of high molar activity by ‘late-stage’ labelling of small (hetero)aromatic molecules and the use of transition metals. This is accompanied by the improvement of technical procedures, like preparation of reactive [18F]fluoride and automated syntheses. The newly introduced procedures reflect a high innovative level and creativity in radio(pharmaceutical) chemistry at present, which are based on modern chemical methods and deep mechanistic insights. Taking also automation and quality control into consideration, major recently developed radiofluorination methods, most of those still under development, are compiled here in view of their potential for clinical PET imaging and thus the ability to advance molecular imaging