LAUSR

Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is an established analytical platform for analyzing metabolic profiles of cells, tissues, and body fluids. There are several advantages in introducing an NMR-based study design into metabolomics studies, including a fast and comprehensive detection, characterization, and quantification of dozens of endogenous metabolites in a single NMR spectrum. Quantitative proton 1H-NMR is the most useful NMR-based platform for metabolomics. The frozen tissues can be analyzed noninvasively using a high-resolution magic angle spinning (HR-MAS) 1H-NMR spectroscopy; or several extraction techniques can be applied to detect additional metabolites using a conventional liquid-based NMR technique. In this chapter, we report on tissue collection, handling, extraction methods, and 1H-NMR acquisition protocols developed in the past decades for a precise and quantitative NMR-metabolomics approach. The NMR acquisition protocols (both HR-MAS and conventional 1H-NMR spectroscopy) and spectral analysis steps are also presented. Since NMR can be applied "in vivo" using horizontal bore MRI scanners, several in vivo sequences for localized 1H-MRS (magnetic resonance spectroscopy) are presented which can be directly applied for noninvasive detection of brain metabolites.