SR-FTIR spectroscopic preliminary findings of non-cancerous, cancerous, and hyperplastic human prostate tissues

Synchrotron radiation Fourier transform infrared (SR-FTIR) spectroscopy belongs to modern spectroscopic techniques and has been very often used to study chemical composition of different types of tissue. A microscope setup attached to the SR-FTIR spectrometer enables tissue analysis to be done at micrometer scale. Prostate diseases including hyperplasia and cancer have recently become the most common among men and therefore there is a need for continuous analysis using several supplementary analytical techniques. In the present study, prostate samples from five patients have been analyzed. The samples have been obtained from the organs removed during prostatectomy and then classified as non-cancerous, cancerous, or hyperplastic. Classification has been based on histopathological examinations. The tissue sections have been analyzed by FTIR microspectroscopy using both globar and infrared synchrotron radiation sources. In both cases, microscopic mapping of selected areas of the tissues has been performed.In order to characterize differences between sections of the tissues containing various numbers of healthy and pathological cells, changes in relative intensity of the bands in the range of 4000–2800 cm−1 have been analyzed. Maps of absorbance intensity ratios of bands due to CH2 and CH3 stretching vibrations (in the region from 3000 to 2800 cm−1) and those due to CH2 and NH stretching vibrations (in the region from 3700 to 2800 cm−1) have been created in order to analyze pathological changes in tissues. This study confirms a correlation between CH2/CH3 and CH2/NH absorption intensity ratios depending on the histological state of the sample.