HIGH-RESOLUTION PROTON MAGNETIC-RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY OF BIOLOGICAL-FLUIDS

There is currently widespread interest in all aspects of biological NMR spectroscopy, an area of scientific endeavour that has progressed rapidly in recent years. This review concerns the application of magnetic resonance methods to investigate the biochemical composition of body fluids that are secreted and excreted by man and animals. Understanding the biochemistry of body fluids such as urine and plasma is of great clinical and diagnostic importance, as the chemical characteristics of each reflect abnormal metabolic and disease processes in the whole body. Knowledge of the composition of these and other biofluids (such as bile and cerebrospinal fluid) can also be important in toxicological studies and in experiments on the metabolism, disposition and fate of drugs and other xenobiotics. High resolution 1H-NMR measurements on the low molecular weight metabolites in biological fluids have only been performed in the past decade, but these have resulted in a number of interesting and important applications in clinical and metabolic biochemistry. However, the full potential of biofluid NMR research is still largely unexplored, particularly with respect to intermolecular interactions between small and macromolecules that occur in intact biological matrices.