Rupert Stadlhofer (Hamburg), Manuela Moritz (Hamburg), Marceline Fuh (Hamburg), Jörg Heeren (Hamburg), Henrike Zech (Hamburg), Till Clauditz (Hamburg), Hartmut Schlüter (Hamburg), Christian Betz (Hamburg), Dennis Eggert (Hamburg), Arne Böttcher (Hamburg), Jan Hahn (Hamburg)
Introduction
The knowledge on the role of lipids in cancer is well established and perturbations of lipid metabolism in malignant disease are increasingly becoming a research focus as mass spectrometry enables for high-throughput and high-resolution analysis of the tissues lipidom. This study demonstrates the feasibility of tissue ablation with a nanosecond infrared laser (NIRL) for the subsequent lipidomic analysis of oropharyngeal tissues and its potential to discriminate oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma (OPSCC) from healthy oropharyngeal tissue.
Material/Method
Quantitative lipid profiles covering 13 lipid classes and 755 lipid species were obtained for 11 fresh frozen oropharyngeal tissue samples of 4 patients (7 OPSCC samples and 4 healthy tissue samples, with three technical replicants each). The aerosol obtained by tissue ablation with a NIRL was analyzed using a LipidizerTM platform.
Results
Significant inter- and intrapatient differences in lipid profiles were observed across all tumor and non-tumor samples. The most consistent alterations included an increase in the proportion of phosphatidylethanolamines and phosphatidylcholines in OPSCC samples, independent of the tumor location (tonsil and base of the tongue (BOT)). Another notable alteration in BOT samples was a decrease in the proportion of triacylglycerins by 65% in the OPSCC samples.
Conclusion
NIRL-based tissue sampling with consecutive MS lipidomic analysis emerges as a feasible approach for the differentiation of OPSCC and healthy oropharyngeal tissue and provides new insights into lipid alterations in OPSCC. In combination with the outstanding surgical properties of NIRL the use of this technology in clinical practice holds great promise for the future.
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