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Updated: Jul 10, 2026
Tumor Hypoxia Assessment: In Vivo 3D Oxygen Imaging Through Electron Paramagnetic Resonance
Published on: February 14, 2025
Bioenergetic status and hypoxia in Lewis lung carcinoma assessed by 31P NMR spectroscopy: correlation with tumor
L Bubnovskaya1, V Mikhailenko, A Kovelskaya
1R.E. Kavetsky Institute of Experimental Pathology, Oncology and Radiobiology of NAS of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine. osion@onconet.kiev.ua
Aim:
To evaluate the hypoxia level and some indices of Lewis lung carcinoma energy metabolism by means of 31P NMR spectroscopy in perchloric acid (PCA) tissue extracts during growth of primary tumor and metastasis.
Materials And Methods:
C57Bl/6 mice-bearing Lewis lung carcinoma were used in this study. Tumor energy metabolism was studied by 31P NMR spectroscopy and the metabolic NMR ratios were used as parameters for metabolic status and hypoxia level.
Results:
It was shown that growth of primary tumor is accompanied with increase of Pi/PCr, Pi/betaNTP and PME/betaNTP ratios that reflect drop of tumor energy status and oxygenation level in tumor tissue. These changes in relevant metabolic ratios correlate with enlargement of primary tumor volume (r=0.87, p=0.0045; r=0.90, p=0.0012; r=0.764, p=0.05, respectively) as well as with the number of lung metastases (r(s)=0.761, p=0.028; r(s)=0.86, p=0.0049; r(s)=0.77, p=0.040, respectively).
Conclusion:
In present study it was shown that 31P NMR spectroscopy of PCA tumor tissue extracts may be used as reliable method for the assessment of the level of oxygenation as well as changes in energy metabolism in the experimental tumors. It may be helpful to evaluate the energy status of human tumors by investigation both of biopsy and surgical specimens. Hypoxia and hypoxia-associated metabolic events in primary tumor are linked with malignant progression, in particular metastasis.
