Spectropathology of Adrenal Gland is this Possible?

Nowadays we can observe increasing attention toward the possibility of the use of FTIR microspectroscopy as a complementary diagnostic method. Research is being conducted to find biomolecular markers of pathological states, including neoplastic changes. To ensure the reliability of the method, wide-range population studies should be done. The best material for studies are fresh, not fixed tissue samples. But in case of rare diseases it is difficult to gather a sufficiently large group of samples. In such case formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue samples are valuable research object. In presented study we tried to find out the biomolecular markers of adrenal gland lesions based on archival FFPE samples using FTIR microspectroscopy. There were three investigated groups: normal adrenocortical tissue, adrenocortical adenoma and adrenocortical carcinoma which is very rare (about 5% of all detected adrenal pathological alterations). We found that the most significant difference is the large content of carbohydrates and nucleic acids in adrenocortical carcinoma. The other difference is rather less significant. Presented study has a preliminary character. They showed the possibility of using the archival FFPE adrenal gland tissue samples but in future it should be considered the application of more sophisticated analysis methods which probably would reveal more difference evidence for classification.