Probing underlying biophysical mechanisms of electrical properties change by pathogenesis at the microscopic cellular level

Abstract

The electrical properties of human tissue have significant potential as biophysical markers in clinical applications, as they can indicate biochemical/biophysical changes occurring at the cellular and extracellular levels. Magnetic resonance electrical properties tomography (MR-EPT) provides a noninvasive approach for extracting pixel-wise electrical properties by processing the B1 field mapping data. However, our current understanding of the biophysical mechanisms underlying changes in electrical properties at the microscopic cellular level during pathogenesis remains incomplete. In this study, an inhomogeneous liver model was developed to establish a linear correlation between fat fraction and electrical properties. We further fit the correlation of liver phantoms with different fat fractions of 0%, 1%, 9%, 17%, 25%, 30%, and 50% (R2 > 0.93). In addition, an inhomogeneous liver phantom was fabricated and measured through MR-EPT at 128 MHz (3 T). The outcomes of this research have the potential to bridge the gap between microscopic lesions and pixel-wise MR-EPT images, offering a feasible method for extracting electrical properties through fat quantification techniques like MRI-Dixon technique.