Centre for Biophotonics, Lancaster University, UK.
Analyst. 2011 May 21;136(10):2047-55. doi: 10.1039/c0an00972e. Epub 2011 Mar 18.
Endometriosis is the growth of endometrial tissue outside of the uterine cavity. Its aetiology remains obscure, and it is difficult to diagnose ranging from asymptomatic to debilitating disease. Mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy has become recognised as a potential clinical diagnostic tool. Biomolecules absorb mid-IR (4000 cm(-1) to 400 cm(-1)) and from this, a biochemical-cell fingerprint in the form of an absorbance spectrum can be derived. We set out to determine if IR spectroscopy could be used to identify underlying biochemical differences between endometrial tissues growing outside of the uterus (ectopic) from endometrial tissue of the uterus (eutopic). For comparative purposes, endometrial tissues from endometriosis-free women were also obtained (benign eutopic). Attenuated total reflection Fourier-transform IR (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy or transmission FTIR microspectroscopy was employed for spectral acquisition. Principal component analysis (PCA)-linear discriminant analysis (LDA) was used for chemometric analysis. A clear segregation was exhibited between the three categories independent of inter-individual confounding differences. Importantly, there was a marked difference between eutopic endometrial tissue from patients with or without endometriosis. This indicates that IR spectroscopy coupled with multivariate analysis (e.g., PCA-LDA) may provide a non-invasive diagnostic tool for endometriosis. By analysing the underlying biochemistry of these endometrial tissues, this approach may facilitate a better understanding of this pathology.
子宫内膜异位症是指子宫内膜组织生长在子宫腔以外的部位。其病因仍然不清楚，并且诊断难度很大，从无症状到使人虚弱的疾病都有。中红外（IR）光谱已被认为是一种有潜力的临床诊断工具。生物分子吸收中红外（4000 cm(-1) 到 400 cm(-1))，由此可以得出生化细胞指纹的形式，即吸收光谱。我们着手确定 IR 光谱是否可用于识别子宫外生长的子宫内膜组织（异位）与子宫内的子宫内膜组织（在位）之间潜在的生化差异。出于比较目的，还获得了没有子宫内膜异位症的女性的子宫内膜组织（良性在位）。采用衰减全反射傅里叶变换红外（ATR-FTIR）光谱或透射 FTIR 微光谱进行光谱采集。主成分分析（PCA）-线性判别分析（LDA）用于化学计量分析。无论个体间混杂差异如何，这三个类别之间都表现出明显的分离。重要的是，有或没有子宫内膜异位症的患者的在位子宫内膜组织之间存在明显差异。这表明，IR 光谱结合多元分析（例如 PCA-LDA）可能为子宫内膜异位症提供一种非侵入性诊断工具。通过分析这些子宫内膜组织的潜在生物化学特性，这种方法可能有助于更好地理解这种病理学。
