Magnetic Resonance Insights

The use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) for the detection of in-vivo metabolic perturbations is increasing in popularity in Prostate Cancer (PCa) research on both humans and rodent models. However, there are distinct metabolic differences between species and prostate areas; a fact making general conclusions about PCa difficult. Here, we use High Resolution Magic Angle Spinning Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (HRMAS NMR) spectroscopy to provide tissue specific identification of metabolites and their relative ratios; information useful in providing insight into the biochemical pathways of the prostate. As our NMR-based approach reveals, human and rat prostate tissues have different metabolic signatures as reflected in numerous key metabolites, including citrate and choline compounds, but also aspartate, lysine, taurine, glutamate, glutamine, creatine and inositol. In general, distribution of these metabolites is not only highly dependent on the species (human versus rat), but also on the location (lobe/zone) in the prostate tissue and the sample pathology; an observation making HRMAS NMR of intact tissue samples a promising method for extracting differences and common features in various experimental prostate cancer models.