Metabolic profiles of healthy and neoplastic human colorectal tissues studied by ex vivo HR-MAS MRS.

The metabolic profile of human healthy and neoplastic colorectal tissues was obtained through ex vivo HR-MAS MRS. The synergic combination of spectroscopic results with chemometric analyses allowed to discriminate between healthy and neoplastic tissues, and to identify the increase of taurine, acetate, lactate and lipids, and the decrease of polyols and sugars as tumoral characteristics. Moreover, it was found that histologically normal colorectal tissues collected at least 15 cm from the adenocarcinoma are characterized by a metabolic profile similar to that of the tumoral lesions. Ex vivo HR-MAS MRS may be of great potentiality in the clinical evaluation of neoplastic colorectal tissues. The biochemical data on human colorectal tissues could represent the molecular basis for accurate and non invasive clinical application of in vivo MRS.