Fig. 2.

¹H MR spectra acquired from ex vivo rat liver samples from four experimental groups, and cholesterol and fatty acid moiety content measurements. (A) Wild type hepatic ¹H spectrum; (B) LAL deficient hepatic ¹H spectrum; (C) sebelipase alfa-treated LAL deficient hepatic ¹H spectrum; (D) NAFLD hepatic ¹H spectrum; (E) correlation between biochemical assay and MR measurement of hepatic cholesterol content (R² = 0.86); (F) hepatic cholesterol content as determined from MR measurements from the four experimental groups; (G) hepatic fatty acid moiety content as determined from MR measurements from the four experimental groups. * Denotes a statistically significant difference compared to the other three groups (p <0.05). Elevated lipid resonances are observed in spectra from LAL deficient and NAFLD rats compared to wild type, and sebelipase α-treated rats exhibit lower lipid content than their untreated counterparts. Elevation of CH₃ to CH₂ peak magnitude is observed in spectra from LAL deficient rats compared to NAFLD rats due to accumulation of hepatic cholesteryl ester.