ASSESSMENT OF FREEZING EFFECTS AND DIAGNOSTIC POTENTIAL OF BIOBANK HEALTHY AND NEOPLASTIC BREAST TISSUES THROUGH HR-MAS NMR SPECTROSCOPY

HR-MAS NMR spectroscopy was employed to monitor the metabolic profiles of Modena BioBank breast samples over one year of freezing at -80 °C. The study includes 22 adult female patients living in Modena and its hinterland, who underwent total mastectomy or quadrantectomy in 2011 - 2012. Variations occur, especially affecting phosphocholine and choline. This is not a trivial finding, since many studies base the distinction between neoplastic and healthy tissues or the assessment of tumor grade on the analysis of choline metabolites [1,2]. Despite the changes observed, we established that the diagnostic power of the HR-MAS NMR spectra of frozen samples is preserved, at least as far as the distinction between neoplastic and healthy samples is concerned. Lactate, phosphocholine, phosphoethanolamine, taurine, myo-inositol and glucose are biomarkers that can be used to distinguish healthy from neoplastic tissues, whereas some metabolite ratios, such as Lac+PE+Tau/Glc+Myo, seem to have even higher discrimination potential. Fig. 1. Scores plot of PCA on neoplastic (crosses) vs healthy (triangles) samples. Loadings profiles (right) of PC2 and PC3. References [1]