Systematic investigation of degradation effects on spin-lattice relaxation times in mouse-liver by low resolution NMR.

In spite of numerous work on in vitro proton relaxation time investigations of biological tissue, many questions still remain open. In this study we focused on spin-lattice (T1) relaxation time measurements of mouse liver tissue in order to estimate the time-after-excision effects. The post mortem behaviour of excised tissue was measured up to four hours in intervals of about nine minutes. The time course of liver T1 was determined for different temperatures (4 degrees-40 degrees C) for female mice and the effect of starvation (up to 48 hours) on the time course of T1 was investigated for male and female mice at 37 degrees C. We obtained significant differences in liver T1 time course after excision due to different physiological states like sex, starvation and circadian rhythm.