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 1 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 (PC) 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. 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 (Lac), PC, phosphoethanolamine (PE), taurine (Tau), myo-inositol (Myo) and glucose (Glc) 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.