1985 Volume 76 Issue 8 Pages 1161-1170
Growth of VX2 carcinoma transplanted in the rabbit bladder was monitored by measuring nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) relaxation times in the tumor, non-tumorous tissue of the tumor-bearing animals and serum. Rabbits injected with saline into the bladder wall were used as the control animals. The sampled materials were kept frozen with dry-ice until NMR analysis. Spin-lattice relaxation time (T1) and spin-spin relaxition time (T2) were measured with FT-NMR spectrometer at 2.1tesla and tumor-bearing 27°C within 24 hours after sampling.
T1 values of tumor tissue gradually increased along with tumor growth, being greater than the control values which remained constant. T1 values of the non-tumorous bladder tissue were lower than those of the tumor throughout the middle stage of tumor growth (4 week), and then showed prominent increase at the end stage of tumor growth (5-6 weeks). Advanced tumor growth may have caused water retention in the surrouding non-tumorous tissue.
T2 values of the tumor tissue did not show any characteristic changes as compared with the controls throuhout the progress of the tumor. T2 values of the non-tumorous bladder tissue also presented no peculiar change until the middle stage, but again showed a rapid increase as observed in T1 monitoring, in the end stage.
T1 and T2 values in both the non-tumorous tissue and the control bladder tissue well correlated with the tissue water content throughout the tumor growth, while these on the tumor tissue represented no significant correlation with the water content as a whole. However, the relaxation times in the tumor tissue well correlated with water content in the individual tumor stage, suggesting that relaxation times in tumor is influenced not only by water content but also by water-macromolecular interaction.
T1 and T2 in the serum of both the tumor-bearing and control animals showed no characteristic changes with unstable fluctuation of the values, but these of the tumor-bearing rabbit increased rapidly in the end stage of the tumor. Changes of T1 and T2 well correlated with total serum protein, indicating that prolongation of serum T1 and T2 reflects the nutritional condition.
