Figure 6. In vivo deuterium labeling followed by deuterium MRI (dMRI) facilitates diagnosis of chronic graft vs.

host disease (cGVHD) in the target organ in allogeneic (allo) hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) recipients. (A and C) Proton (anatomical) MRI and dMRI (B and D) obtained with Bruker 9.7T magnet on day +28 following syngeneic HSCT (A and B) and allogeneic HSCT (C and D) after 21 days (day +7 to +28) of ²H₂O labeling to total body water of 5%. For each mouse, 3 coronal slices 3 mm in thickness were obtained through the midabdomen (covering liver and spleen); 5% ²H₂O phantom was imaged to provide a reference deuterium signal. (E) Normalized deuterium signal (nDS) in the liver at day +14 was significantly higher in allogeneic recipients compared with syngeneic, while the unaffected tissue (muscle) nDS did not differ between cohorts, shown in F. For E and F, data are representative of 1 experiment (n = 3 per cohort). (G) nDS in the liver at day +28 was significantly higher in allogeneic recipients compared with syngeneic, while the muscle nDS did not differ between cohorts, shown in H. For G and H, data representative of 2 independent experiments (n = 4 and 3 for allo and syn, respectively). For panels E–H, *P < 0.05, ***P < 0.001; 2-sample, 2-tailed, unequal variance t test.