Non-invasive lipid measurement in living insects using NMR microscopy

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) microscopy allows us to image and quantify the distribution of NMR-active nuclei in living specimens. Using high-field NMR microscopy at a magnetic field strength of 14.1 T and strong gradients up to 3 T m(-1), we show that separation of fat and water nuclear resonances in living insects can be achieved. In contrast to destructive conventional photometric and mass measurements, we demonstrate exemplarily in the European spruce bark beetle that NMR can be efficiently used to quantify absolute fat and water content in living insects. Additionally, anatomic images with a spatial in-plane resolution up to 10 μm and with high soft tissue contrast were acquired. We demonstrate that fat distribution and fat consumption of living insects can be obtained by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This enables future research to address questions where single individuals have to be measured several times, which is not possible with conventional destructive methods.