Theoretical and practical aspects of NMR studies of cells

Various theoretical and practical aspects of biological nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy that are relevant to the study of immune cells are discussed as a prelude to the following papers in this issue of ImmunoMethods. We explain some of the salient features of modern Fourier-transform NMR spectroscopy, including spectral acquisition, Fourier transformation, signal averaging, apodization, and relaxation phenomena. The major features of the one-dimensional NMR spectrum are summarized prior to a brief description of two-dimensional NMR spectroscopy. We consider various practical questions, such as which NMR-receptive nuclide might be most useful for discerning the metabolic information being sought; in particular, the relative advantages and disadvantages of 1H, 13C, 19F, and 31P NMR spectroscopy are discussed in the context of elucidating metabolic information. The relative merits and pitfalls of using cell extracts, cell suspensions, and perfused immobilized cells for studies of immune cell activation are also considered.