Characteristic metabolic profiles revealed by 1H NMR spectroscopy for three types of human brain and nervous system tumours

Cell culture techniques, high-resolution in vitro 1 H NMR spectroscopy, and chromatographic analyses were used to compare the properties of three types of human brain and nervous system tumours. Cell lines were immunocytochemically characterized at all stages in culture with specific antibodies. Intracellular metabolites present in cell extracts were analysed by 1 H NMR spectroscopy and by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The spectra from meningiomas, neuroblastomas, and glioblastomas displayed, in addition to similarities - including the presence of signals from leucine, isoleucine, valine, threonine, lactate, acetate, glutamate, choline-containing compounds and glycine - certain distinguishing metabolic features. Spectra from meningiomas featured relatively high signals from alanine. Intense signals from creatine were present in neuroblastoma spectra, while in spectra from glioblastoma they were not detectable. We found statistically significant differences by 1 H NMR spectroscopy in the amounts of alanine, glutamate, creatine, phosphorylcholine and threonine among the types of tumours examined. HPLC determinations confirmed that there were also other metabolites specific to a type of tumour, such as taurine, γ-aminobutyric acid, and serine. We suggest that these findings have potential relevance for the development of non-invasive diagnosis of tumour lineage by 1 H NMR spectroscopy in vivo.