Biochemistry of GBCAs
Molecular changes in the complex chemical equilibrium of GBCAs and competitive ions and binding partners can be investigated via changes in the relaxivity of water protons. The different stability of linear versus macrocyclic GBCAs can thus be easily quantified.
To this end, we are developing methods to investigate the behavior of GBCAs, particularly in the presence of glycosaminiglycans (GAGs), in order to gain new insights into possible deposits of Gd(III) ions. For the first time, we were able to quantify the dependence of these processes on the polymer length and the sulphation of the GAGs using MRI.
