HIGH-RESOLUTION MAGIC-ANGLE-SPINNING H-1 NUCLEAR-MAGNETIC-RESONANCE ANALYSIS OF INTACT PROSTATIC HYPERPLASTIC AND TUMOR-TISSUES

High resolution magic angle spinning (MAS) H-1 nuclear magnetic resona nce (NMR) spectra of whole pieces of human prostatic tissue (<40 mg pe r sample) from patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH and mal ignant tumours have been obtained and compared with high resolution NM R solution state spectra obtained via a standard tissue extraction met hod, Well resolved MAS-NMR spectra of the tissue samples were obtained in which both cytosolic and membrane-related compounds could be ident ified, Two-dimensional H-1 MAS-NMR measurements, including J-resolved and shift correlation spectra, were also obtained to allow metabolite signal assignment, In all cases high quality spectra were obtained tha t were rich in bioanalytical information on a wide range of intracellu lar metabolites and lipids, Marked differences were observed between M AS spectra from tumours versus BPH tissue, particularly in the lipid s ignals, which were much more intense in tumours, This was in contrast to the protein-free extracts of the same samples which shelved much mo re similar NMR profiles for the two disease classes, These data indica te that MAS-NMR spectra of intact tissue biopsy samples give a wider r ange of bioanalytical information on small and large molecules than co nventional, more labour intensive cell extraction procedures, and this strengthens the case for the use of MAS-NMR in clinical diagnostics.