Developmental and regional changes in the neurochemical profile of the rat brain determined by in vivo 1H NMR spectroscopy

Sixteen metabolites were quantified from 11-24 micro l volumes in three different brain regions (hippocampus, striatum, and cerebral cortex) during postnatal development. Rat pups from the same litter were repeatedly measured on postnatal days 7, 10, 14, 21, and 28 using a completely noninvasive and longitudinal study design. Metabolite quantification was based on ultra-short echo-time (1)H NMR spectroscopy at 9.4 T and LCModel processing. Most of the brain metabolites were quantified with Cramer-Rao lower bounds (CRLB) less than 20%, which corresponded to an estimated concentration error