Application of NMR to the study of cells and body fluids

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has become established as a powerful tool for qualitative and semi-quantitative analysis of complex mixtures of body fluids, intact cells, tissues and their extracts. Such studies are finding increasing applications in clinical and medical sciences. H-1 and P-1 NMR p rovide a noninvasive probe of high-energy compounds, amino acids, and compo unds of phospholipid metabolism in cells and tissues. C-13 NMR has been use d to measure and characterize high concentration of molecules, The introduc tion of C-13-labeled substrates allows one to follow metabolism by the C-13 NMR method. In this review, we have described one dimensional inverse dete ction techniques and various two dimensional homonuclear and heteronuclear methods with special emphasis on methods for studies of cells. Application of NMR to detect metabolites in various cells and tissues has been discusse d with illustrative examples, to highlight the type of information NMR can provide.