Biomarker Insights

Departments of ¹Pathology and ²Radiology Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School Boston, Massachusetts.

Abstract: Accurate interpretation and correlation of tissue spectroscopy with pathological conditions requires disease specific tissue metabolite databases; however, specimens for research are often kept in frozen storage for various lengths of time. Whether such frozen storage results in alterations to the measured metabolites is a critical but largely unknown issue. In this study, human prostate tissues from specimens that had been stored at –80 ºC for 32 months were analyzed with high resolution magic angle spinning (HRMAS) magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy, and compared with the initial measurements of the adjacent specimens from the same cases when snap frozen in the operation room and kept frozen for less than 24 hours. Results of the current study indicate that that the storage-induced metabolite alterations are below the limits that tissue MR spectroscopy can discriminate. Furthermore, quantitative pathology evaluations suggest the observed alterations in metabolite profi les measured from the adjacent specimens of the same prostates may be accounted for by tissue pathological heterogeneities and are not a result of storage conditions. Hence, these results indicate that long-term frozen storage of prostate specimens can be quantitatively analyzed by HRMAS MR spectroscopy without concerns regarding significant metabolic degradation or alteration.

Abbreviations: HRMAS: (high resolution magic angle spinning); MR: (magnetic resonance); CPMG: (Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill).