NMR relaxation times of water protons in human colon cancer cell lines and clones.

Established lines of human colon cancer cells from several sources (LS180, LS174T, HT29, SW480, SW1345) had water proton nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spin-lattice relaxation times (T1) of 460 +/- 45 msec to 982 +/- 9 msec and spin-spin relaxation times (T2) of 83 +/- 6 msec to 176 +/- 6 msec. Two clones derived from single cells of line LS174T were similar in T1 and T2 to the parent line. Differences among the cell lines were not totally a function of cellular hydration. Normal adult and fetal human primary colon cells were wetter and had higher T1 and T2 values than established cell lines. Relaxation times in this study substantiate variations seen for human colon tumors in earlier studies. Established cell lines maintained water relaxation times similar to tumor tissue values. Along with other morphological and biochemical criteria, the relaxation times suggest that these established human colon cancer cell lines may serve as a good experimental model for the study of human colon cancer.