1: NMR Biomed. 2004 Aug;17(5):223-5. 

In vivo EPR: when, how and why?

Gallez B, Swartz HM.

This special issue is aimed at providing the readers of this journal with an
indication of the exciting and important areas in which in vivo electron
paramagnetic resonance (EPR) [or equivalently electron spin resonance (ESR)] is
making contributions to experimental progress and to provide perspectives on
future developments, including the potential for in vivo EPR to be an important
new clinical tool. There also are many situations where the combination of in
vivo EPR with NMR may be very synergistic. EPR (ESR) is a magnetic
resonance-based technique that detects species with unpaired electrons. The
technique has become a major tool in diverse fields ranging from biology and
chemistry to solid-state physics. In the last few years, many publications have
demonstrated that EPR measurements in living animals (in vivo EPR) can provide
very significant new insights to physiology, pathophysiology and pharmacology.
The most successful applications of in vivo EPR have been non-invasive
measurements of oxygen, nitric oxide, bioradicals, pH and redox state, with
applications in oncology, cardiology, neuroscience and toxicology. EPR also
appears to be the method of choice for measuring radiation dose retrospectively,
including the potential to do this in vivo in human subjects. While far from
comprehensive, the reviews, original contributions and viewpoints provided in
this issue by several leaders in the field of in vivo EPR should provide the
readers with confirmation that in vivo EPR is an exciting field that is likely
to provide very valuable complementary information for many NMR-based studies in
experimental animals and, probably, also for clinical studies. Copyright 2004
John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Publication Types:
    Editorial

PMID: 15366024 [PubMed - in process]