Composition of free amino acids in brain tumors.

The composition of the free amino acid pools in various brain tumors and in normal brains obtained at surgery or at autopsy is determined with an automatic amino acid analyzer and the results statistically evaluated. The tumors have lower ratios of GABA in the pools than the normal brain; tumors with higher GABA ratios are found in those which are in close contact with and have an invasive nature to brain tissue. In gliomas, the more malignant a tumor becomes, the more different the composition in that tumor is from that in normal brain tissue. But conversely, the ratio of GABA is highest in glioblastoma. The composition of the pool in oligodendroglioma is not significantly different from that in the normal brain. Metastatic brain tumors show the highest ratios of phenylalanine, tyrosine and methionine in the pool among the tumors and the normal brain. From the viewpoint of the composition of the free amino acid pools, like from that of the histological aspects, brain tumors seem to be classified into four groups: glioma, neurinoma, meningioma and metastatic tumors.