Imaging Skeletal Muscle Mitochondrial OXPHOS Activity In Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Survivors

Description

This study hypothesizes that sarcopenia (low lean mass and muscle weakness), the central components of frailty, result from cancer- and or treatment-related impairment of cellular function within skeletal myocytes. Impaired mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (mtOXPHOS) is a hallmark of aging and implicated in skeletal muscle (muscle) weakness and lowered physical performance with normal aging. There is a lack of understanding of how the dysfunctional mitochondrial capacity affects the individual muscle groups in the lower extremities of the survivors.

This pilot study will explore the feasibility of non-invasive metabolic imaging to measure the major muscle groups in the calf muscle mtOXPHOS in childhood survivors of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in SJLIFE cohort by incorporating magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in survivors and age/sex-matched healthy volunteers (Controls). Control participants will be recruited from SJLIFE control cohort and may be recruited from new SJLIFE controls; The MRI/MRS findings will be correlated with clinically ascertained muscle phenotype; and will explore and describe differences in muscle morphology, epigenetics, mtDNA-CN between survivors and controls using peripheral blood and muscle biopsies, and their association with MRI/MRS findings.

Survivor and Control participants will be asked to have two MRI sessions; a physical function, and a muscle ultrasound assessment done during SJLIFE Human Performance Lab (HPL). Participants will be asked to give a peripheral blood sample and muscle sample. MR imaging will be performed in two appointments.