Metabonomic study of human serum in gallbladder cancer by 1H NMR spectroscopy

Gallbladder carcinoma (GBC) is one of the most lethal malignancies of upper gastrointestinal tract and it has the highest mortality rate in Chile and India. It has a very high incidence rates in northern India therefore it is also called as an Indian disease. There are several factors which play important role in development of gallbladder cancer including long-standing stones in gallbladder and alterations in composition of bile. Studies on gallstones and gallbladder tissues revealed that benign group can easily be discriminated from malignant group. Many proteomic studies have been performed for different cancers and several responsible serum protein markers have been identified but there is no such metabonomics study that shows the presence of any biomarker associated with gallbladder carcinoma. Identification of such biomarker would help immensely in the diagnostic of GBC. For this study we have collected blood samples (70; including patients from Chronic Cholecystitis (CC), XanthoGranulomatous Cholecystitis (XGC) and Gallbladder Cancer (GBC)) post-operatively (immediately after surgery) from patient undergoing cholecystectomy in Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, SGPGIMS. Control samples were also collected from 20 volunteers after 12 hrs of fasting. 4 ml of blood sample was collected and was allowed to clot in plastic tube for 30 min at room temperature in incubator. The serum was collected by centrifugation and samples were stored at -80 deg C till NMR experiments. 400 μL of serum was used for recording NMR spectra. NMR spectra were recorded at Bruker Avance 800 MHz spectrometer using CPMG pulse sequence with water presaturation. Control serum shows presence of various amino acids and low molecular weight metabolites. Detailed multivariate analysis along with markers found in serum associated with GBC will be presented. (author)