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Soo Park, MD
Soo Park, MD
Posted: Friday, May 24, 2024
As the incidence rates of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma continue to rise, the diagnostic process remains a time-consuming hurdle. Thus, Edward Vitkin, PhD, of Tel Aviv University, Israel, and colleagues assessed the ability of an electroporation-based biopsy technique to harvest large amounts of lipids from human skin samples. Their findings, which were published in the journal Skin Research and Technology, may provide novel insights into these non-melanoma skin cancers.
“The recent electroporation-based biopsy sampling technique leverages cell permeabilization caused by electric fields for molecular harvesting,” the investigators commented. “Coupling this sampling method with ultra-performance liquid chromatography and tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS), which has proven its ability to identify potential markers of skin cancer, provides a promising direction for high-throughput analysis of extractable molecules.”
Between March 2020 and March 2022, the investigators collected tissue samples from 10 patients who had surgical excision of a suspected basal cell carcinoma or cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma (samples, n = 10) and 2 individuals with “healthy” skin who underwent blepharoplasty (n = 3). A total of 168 eligible lipids extracted via electroporation-based biopsy underwent subsequent UPLC-MS/MS profiling and differential expression analysis.
According to the investigators, 27 of the identified lipids were differentially expressed in at least one comparison group (P < .05). The overabundance and volcano plot analyses revealed differing lipidomic profiles in cancerous vs healthy skin samples, with a general trend of more phospholipids in basal cell carcinoma, more lysophospholipids in cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, and fewer diglycerides in both carcinomas.
Disclosure: For full disclosures of the study authors, visit onlinelibrary.wiley.com.
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