Solid state C NMR analysis of human gallstones from cancer and benign gall bladder diseases

Natural abundance ¹³C cross polarized (CP) magic angle spinning (MAS) nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis of human gall bladder stones collected from patients suffering from malignant and benign gall bladder disease was carried out which revealed different polymorphs of cholesterol in these stones. All gall bladder stones in present study had cholesterol as their main constituent. ¹³C CP-MAS NMR analysis revealed three forms of cholesterol molecules in these stones, which are anhydrous form, monohydrate crystalline with amorphous form and monohydrate crystalline form. Our study revealed that stones collected from patients associated with chronic cholecystitis (CC) disease have mostly different polymorph of cholesterol than stones collected from patients associated with gall bladder cancer (GBC). Such study will be helpful in understanding the mechanism of formation of gallstones which are associated with different gall bladder diseases. This is the first study by solid state NMR revealing different crystal polymorphism of cholesterol in human gallstones, extending the applicability of ¹³C CP-MAS NMR technique for the routine study of gallstones.