P 14 ISSRNS 2012: Abstracts / Synchrotron Radiation in Natural Science Vol. 11, No 1 – 2 (2012)
DISTRIBUTION OF BIOMOLECULES IN THE ADRENAL GLAND TUMORS — FTIR RESULTS COMPARED
WITH HISTOLOGICA VIEW OF SAMPLES
J. Dudala1∗, M. Szczerbowska-Boruchowska1, M. Lankosz1, and M. Bialas2
1AGH University of Science and Technology, Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science, Krakow, Poland
2Chair and Department of Pathomorfology, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Keywords: infrared microspectroscopy, adrenal gland tumors, biochemical analysis
∗e-mail : Joanna.Dudala@fis.agh.edu.pl
The aim of the presented study was to show the distribution of biomolecules in the adrenal gland tu- mors obtained by FTIR microspectroscopy in the light of histological structure of samples.
The adrenal glands are the endocrine organs lo- cated at the bottom pole of each kidney. Anatomi- cally they are divided into the adrenal cortex (outer part) and the medulla (inner part). Both of them differ each other structurally and functionally. The adrenal gland tumors are often incidentally detected by chance (hence they are named incidentallomas) while diagnostic imaging is used for the reasons other than the endocrine disease indications [1].
Most of incidentallomas do not give any specific clinical symptoms nevertheless their disclosure often implies quite new direction of diagnosis and further patient treatment.
In the presented work three types of tumors were taken into consideration: adrenal cortical adenoma and adrenal cortical hyperplasia — both types de- rive from adrenal cortical cells; pheochromocytoma comes from chromaffin cells of the adrenal medulla.
The aim of presented investigations, performed for studied samples, was to find if there is any de- pendence between the biochemical structure and the type of tumor. Furthermore the determination of biomolecular composition of the adrenal gland tu- mors may be important for knowledge of tumor pathogenesis. In addition there is a strong need for identification of specific IR spectral biomark- ers differentiating adrenal gland tumor type. Up to now the evaluation of the tumor type is possi- ble on the base of histopatological examination af- ter adrenalectomy. The conducted researches has the preliminary character but they might give the fundamentals for new diagnostic method, based on Fourier Transform Infrared Microspectroscopy, en- ables to differ the tumor type preoperatively.
The tissue samples were taken intraoperatively from patients with different type of the adrenal cortical gland tumors. The specimens were cryo- sectioned into the 10 µm thick slices, mounted on silver coated sample supports (Low-e MirrIR, Kev- ley Technologies) and freeze-dried at −80◦C.
The studies were carried out at the Faculty of Physics and Applied Computer Science at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow in co-operation with the Department of Pathomorfol- ogy, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University in Krakow.
The measurements were performed using the IR microscope (Nicolet Continuum - Thermo Scientific) coupled with FTIR spectrometer (Nicolet 8700 - Thermo Scientific). The scientific instrumentation is equipped with ceramic infrared radiation source (the range of 20 ÷ 9600 cm−1) and the MCT de- tector (mercury cadmium telluride, HgCdTeO2) liq- uid nitrogen cooled. The beam was defined by the aperture size of 20 µm × 20 µm. The reflection mode was applied to collect the absorption IR spec- tra. Raster scanning of the samples enabled two- dimensional chemical mapping of tissue samples.
The spectral analysis were carried out using OM- NIC software (version 8.0). Distribution of func- tional groups of lipids, proteins, nucleic acids and carbohydrates were determined.
Since the studied tumors originated from differ- ent parts of adrenal gland tissue it was predictable that they might differ in biomolecular composition.
The main difference was observed in the lipid func- tional groups. It turned out that level of lipids is higher in the adenoma samples comparing than in pheochromocytomas. Since the studied samples are different each other it is important to consider their histological structure while interpreting the IR mi- crospectroscopy results. The further investigation is in progress.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education.
References
[1] H.E. Turner, N.R. Moore, J.V. Byrne, J.A.H. Wass,
“Pituitary, adrenal and thyroid incidentalomas,”
Endocrine-Related Cancer 5 (1998) 131 – 150.
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