Metabolic profile of lipid extracts obtained by astrocytic brain tumors

Introduction Astrocytic brain tumors – Gliomas in particular – are the most common brain tumors in adults. These malignant neoplasms are characterized by heterogeneous tissue with no distinct differentiation to healthy tissue because of their infiltrative growth. Therefore, the ratio of tumor cells versus healthy tissue in the tumor margin needs to be determined very precisely when the decision is made to which extent this tissue has to be resected surgically. As high resolution magnetic resonance spectra of intact tissue or tissue extracts reflect numerous metabolic information, the metabolic composition of tissue samples from the tumor margin and the tumor core were recorded. In addition, analysis of H-NMR spectra with pattern recognition algorithms permits a tumor classification, since different neoplastic tissue types show different metabolic profiles. Therefore, 22 astrocytic brain tumors were analyzed with H-NMR spectroscopy, subdivided in 22 biopsates of tumor core, 14 biopsates of tumor margin and 4 reference extracts of normal tissue.