Ex vivo HR-MAS Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy of human gastric adenocarcinomas: A comparison with healthy gastric mucosa

The present study reports the characteristics of the biochemical profile of human gastric adenocarcinoma in comparison with that of healthy gastric mucosa, using ex vivo HR-MAS Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy. Healthy human mucosa is mainly characterized by the presence of small metabolites (more than 50 identified) and macromolecules, whereas the adenocarcinoma spectra are dominated by the presence of signals due to triglycerides, whose content on the contrary is very low in healthy gastric mucosa. The use of spin-echo experiments enable us to detect some metabolites in the unhealthy tissues and to determine their variation with respect to the healthy ones. We have observed that the Cho:ChoCC ratio changes from 20:80 in the healthy tissues to 80:20 in the neoplastic gastric mucosa.