# Liver Parametric PET

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2021 · $545,215

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) affects approximately one-third of the general population in the United
States. Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) - a more severe form of NAFLD - develops in 5-10% of NAFLD
patients (i.e., 5-10 million people in the US) with the hallmark of hepatic inflammation in the setting of hepatic
steatosis. Differentiation of NASH from simple hepatic steatosis is vital for patient management in NAFLD as
NASH is associated with accelerated progression into end-stage liver diseases (liver failure and liver cancer)
and with much higher liver-related mortality than the simple fatty liver. While noninvasive imaging methods have
been developed to quantify liver fat and liver fibrosis, there is an unmet need for new imaging methods to detect
and grade liver inflammation. The goal of this project is to develop a positron emission tomography (PET) method
to enable noninvasive assessment of liver inflammation and NASH diagnosis. Using the widely accessible
radiotracer 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG), we propose a liver parametric PET method using dynamic scanning
and tracer kinetic modeling. We hypothesize that glucose transport measured by liver parametric PET can
accurately characterize the liver inflammation underlying NASH. One major challenge with enabling this
technique is that the liver is a unique organ with dual blood supplies from the hepatic artery and portal vein,
requiring the knowledge of dual-blood input function (DBIF) for kinetic modeling, which is difficult to obtain in
human PET studies. Our preliminary work has addressed this technical challenge by developing a novel
optimization-derived DBIF modeling approach. With improved kinetic modeling, we have discovered in a pilot
clinical study that the blood-to-tissue glucose transport rate K1 was strongly associated with histological liver
inflammation grades. The focus of this proposal is to further develop and optimize the methodology of liver
parametric PET and validate its effectiveness for assessing liver inflammation and diagnosing NASH in patients
with NAFLD. More specifically, we will (1) develop the technical method of liver parametric PET; (2) Evaluate
glucose transport rate K1 as an effective and unique PET biomarker of liver inflammation; (3) Combine liver
parametric PET with CT or MR methods for multiparametric NASH diagnosis; (4) Shorten the scan time of liver
parametric PET from one hour to fifteen minutes. The integrated outcome of these specific aims will be a new
technical capability and validation of 18F-FDG PET for liver inflammation assessment and for detecting and
grading NASH. The proposed method will fill the critical gap for noninvasive assessment of liver inflammation in
fatty liver disease. Successful completion of this project has the potential to profoundly impact the clinical
management of NAFLD patients and clinical trials of new NASH treatments.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10263281
- **Project number:** 5R01DK124803-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** Guobao Wang
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $545,215
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-09-15 → 2024-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10263281

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10263281, Liver Parametric PET (5R01DK124803-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10263281. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*