MRI: Acquisition of a Solids Probe for a 400 MHz NMR Spectrometer to Enhance Research and Training at Texas A&M International University

Texas A&M International University, Laredo TX

Investigators

Abstract

To evaluate cortical bone porosity Nuclear Magnetic Resonance equipment can be used. The hydrogen atom attached to oxygen in the water molecules in biological tissue can be used to assess how far a water molecule moves in the bone due to random motion during a specific time of measurement. This information can be used to obtain a map of the pore sizes in the bone and thus is of practical use in medicine. Similar techniques have been successful in assessing the pore sizes of oil rich earth samples to assess oil content. The acquisition of the equipment requested in this proposal will allow Texas A&M International University, a minority serving institution (93% Hispanic students), to enhance the quality of student research/instruction. The proposed equipment will help faculty and students to: (1) study and understand the principle of magnetic angle spinning NMR and solid state NMR; (2) pursue and develop bone related research; and (3) learn solid state NMR technology and apply it to a variety of different applications. Research findings and results will be disseminated in journals and at professional conferences. Several graduate and more than 40 undergraduate students will be involved in NMR related workshops and projects each year. This equipment will also be of benefit for the studies of physics, chemistry, and bioengineering, as well as will be used in classes of more than 20 undergraduates each year for the training of critical thinking and research methodology. The addition of this spectrometer probe will make the science program at TAMIU more competitive, aid the recruitment of new faculty and students, and enable more primarily minority undergraduate and graduate students to conduct high quality research in science degree programs at TAMIU. The PI's current low-field bench-top NMR system uses NMR CPMG spin-spin (T2) relaxation time signal due to water in mobile phase to characterize the cortical bone porosity and pore size distribution, and uses NMR free induction decay (FID) measurements to determine water components in bound and mobile phases. With this requested instrumentation the PI can conduct further research into the 1H environments of bone materials to identify the locations of bone minerals and bone architecture, including water. Specifically, the PI will characterize how water stabilizes the mineral structure and how it couples with mineral crystallites to the surrounding bone structure. We hypothesize that low-field NMR and high field with magnetic angle spinning (MAS) NMR will provide a more complete interpretation of water distribution in bone microstructure, and these data are important to assess bone quality and predict the mechanical behavior of bone. In addition, the high-field magnetic angle spinning (MAS) technique can be used to decouple and reduce the dipolar and susceptibility effect between the solid and the liquid-like phases. This research will provide a more complete picture of bone microstructure to be used as the basis for further bone related research, and material and edical applications. The requested instrumentation will provide other faculty with a necessary tool for use in pursuing aspects of their research that are presently not available on the TAMIU campus.