Changes in skeletal muscle diffusion parameters owing to intramyocellular lipid.

INTRODUCTION: Several studies investigated the changes in diffusion of water molecules in skeletal muscle cells of lifestyle-related-disease patients who performed a hybrid training (HYBT) for six months. They reported that the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and all diffusion eigenvalues (λ1, λ2, and λ3) increased after the HYBT, owing to the enlargement of the intramyocellular diffusion space (intracellular space) caused by the muscular hypertrophy. We assumed that the HYBT promoted metabolism of the whole skeletal muscle including lipids, which reduced the amount of intramyocellular lipid (IMCL), and led to a secondary enlargement of the diffusion space in the skeletal muscle cells. However, the IMCL has to be a diffusion limiting factor in order to verify this hypothesis. Until now, there is no report on whether IMCL is a diffusion limiting factor for water molecules. The objective of this study was to examine whether the IMCL is a diffusion limiting factor in skeletal muscle cells. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We performed a three-dimensional quantification of the IMCL in triceps surae muscles of lifestyle-related-disease patients and healthy volunteers. In addition, we measured the ADC in the volume of interest (VOI), diffusion anisotropy (FA), and diffusion eigenvalues (λ1, λ2, and λ3), and evaluated the correlations between these diffusion parameters and IMCL. RESULTS: The results showed that the amount of IMCL was positively and negatively correlated with the FA and λ3, respectively, in lifestyle-related-disease patients. In addition, there was a weak negative correlation between IMCL and ADC, λ1, and λ2. There was no correlation between the amount of IMCL and diffusion parameters of healthy volunteers. DISCUSSION: Above a certain amount, the IMCL correlates with the diffusion parameters. A higher amount of IMCL leads to smaller diffusion eigenvalues. This result suggested that IMCL possibility of influencing diffusion of water molecules in skeletal muscle cells. However, in order for the influence of IMCL to be reflected in the diffusion eigenvalues, it was needed large amount of IMCL existed, and we thought that the influence was smaller than the influence by the already reported cell membrane.