Sammanfattning
Background: Metabolomics is one of the fastest growing -omics technologies which is most
representative for the phenotype of an organism at a specific time point. Small metabolites detected
by MR-spectroscopy within human tissue or biofluids such as urine and blood, may serve as
important clinical biomarkers or provide vital biological understanding for several diseases. Here we
focus on the role of MR-metabolomics in prostate- and breast cancer, and in major non-cancer
conditions such as cardiac disease and preeclampsia.
Material and methods: This article is based upon a review of available literature within MR-
metabolomics and the authors’ experience in use of MR-metabolomics in basic and clinical research
on breast cancer, prostate cancer and preeclampsia.
Results: MR-metabolomics has proven several diagnostic tissue and biofluid biomarkers for the
focused diseases in this paper. Choline-containing metabolites are potential diagnostic cancer
markers, while glycine and lactate have proven to be related to survival in breast cancer tissue. The
prostate tissue specific citrate and polyamines can separate aggressive from indolent disease,
which may be observed by MR-metabolomics in vivo. In preeclamptic blood samples, a lipid
distribution with similar pattern as patients with cardiac heart disease have been identified.
Conclusion: MR-metabolomics has shown promising potential for biomarker discovery both in
tissues and biofluids, but also for providing vital biological understanding on the diseases focused in
this paper. The future role of MR-metabolomics in the clinic will depend on large-scale validation
studies and standardization of sample preparation, analysis and quantification.