Abstract: The metabolic profiles in normal human liver tissues(n=9), benign hepatic tumor tissues (n=7) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC, n=9) tissues were measured by high-resolution magic angle spinning ¹H nuclear magnetic resonance (HR-MAS ¹H NMR) spectroscopy. Semi-quantitative analyses showed that the HCC tissues contained significantly higher levels of glycine, taurine, choline, glutamate, alanine, valine and lactate, as compared to the normal and benign liver tissues. The results of this study suggest that the metabolic profiles in the HCC tissues were significantly different from normal liver tissues and benign hepatic tumor tissues, and such differences may be used as references for the diagnosis of HCC.

Key words: NMR, hepatocellular carcinoma, HR-MAS ¹H NMRS