Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy to Study Glycolytic Metabolism During Autophagy

Cancer cells undergoing starvation- and treatment-induced autophagy were found to exhibit reduced intracellular lactate, reduced rates of steady-state lactate excretion and reduced real-time pyruvate-lactate exchange rates, indicating that glycolytic metabolism was altered in autophagic cells. In this chapter, we describe the technical details of the use of ¹H-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to measure endogenous cellular concentrations of lactate and glucose in autophagic cells and tissues, how to measure the rate of steady-state lactate excretion and glucose uptake by ¹H-MRS in autophagic cells, and details of the real-time measurement of [1-¹³C] pyruvate to lactate exchange in autophagic cells by ¹³C-MRS-DNP (dynamic nuclear polarization).