In vivo MR investigation of skeletal muscle function in small animals

In vivo 31P-MRS investigations have been widely used in small animals to study skeletal muscle function under normal and pathological conditions. Paradoxically in these studies, the benefit provided by 31P-MRS in terms of non-invasiveness is lost because of the utilization of experimental setups that integrate invasive devices for inducing muscle contractions and for measuring mechanical performance. These traditional methodologies, which require surgical preparations, have obvious limitations regarding repeatability in the same animal. The purpose of this review is to highlight the technical aspects of the in vivo MR investigations of skeletal muscle function in small animal models. We will more particularly address the issue related to the invasiveness of different procedures used so far in order to show finally that a further step into non-invasiveness can be achieved, in particular with the support of muscle functional 1H-MRI.