METABOLIC CHARACTERIZATION OF HUMAN OVARIAN CARCINOMA BY 1H-NMR SPECTROSCOPY.

Abstract

There is today an increasing interest in studies reporting high levels of choline containing compounds (tCho), notably phosphocholine (PCho) in cancers in vivo and in vitro as compared to the corresponding non tumoral cells and tissues. Only a few studies have focused attention on ovarian cancer, a neoplasia portrayed as an insidious disease or silent killer that causes no symptoms and is hardly detected at first stages, with a 5-year survival still remaining at about 44%. Purpose of the present study is to evaluate the biochemical and functional significance of aberrant tCho content in ovarian cancer. To this end, we used different preclinical models and surgical samples analyzed by a number of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) techniques, i.e. in vitro 1H MRS of cells and tissue extracts, in vivo MRS of EOC xenografts in immuno-deficient mice, ex vivo High Resolution (HR) MRS and magic angle spinning (MAS) analyses of intact tissues samples, complemented with the molecular biological approaches.