title: [Study on FTIR spectra of finger nails of normal people and patients of esophagus cancer].
abstract: To investigate the application of human finger nails in the diagnosis of cancer, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was employed to study the finger nails from some normal people and some with esophagus cancer and others with an operation for curing esophagus cancer five months ago. The results showed that there are obvious differences between FTIR spectra in them in spectral parameters such as frequency, intensity and band shape etc. The changes in the phosphate symmetric stretching vibration v(s) (PO2-) and asymmetric stretching vibration v(a)s(PO2-) modes are uniform, the v(s) (PO2-) and v(a)s(PO2-) absorption peaks of cancerous ones shift to high wave number compared with those of normal people, while those with operation shift to low wave number compared with those of cancerous ones. The C-O stretching vibration mode of protein located at 1 164 cm(-1) is composed of three absorption peaks located at 1 173.3, 1 158.0 and 1 151.1 cm(-1) respectively, meanwhile, the intensities and the wave numbers of the three peaks of cancerous ones all increase compared with normal people. The wave numbers of amide I and amide II of cancerous ones are both lower than those of normal people, while those with operation are between the cancerous ones and normal people, which suggest that the contents of protein and alpha-helix in finger nails of normal people, cancerous ones and the ones with operation are discriminative. The peak of bending vibration delta(CH2) mode of CH2 groups of protein lipid of cancerous ones shifts to high wave number slightly and the intensity of the peak weakens compared with that of normal people, which indicate that the methylene chain in the finger nails membrane lipids of cancerous ones is more ordered than that of normal people. Nevertheless, the peak of stretching vibration v(s) (CH2) of cancerous ones is lower than that of normal people, while that of the ones with operation is between cancerous ones and normal ones. As a result, the pathological changes in viscera can induce the changing of framework structure of phosphate in nucleic acid molecule of finger nails, and destroy the hydrogen bond of C-O(H) group in amino acid remnant group in finger nails. Furthermore, it also can decrease the C-O bond in keratin which participates in the action of hydrogen bond, and prompt the changing of content of keratin in finger nails, nevertheless the content of keratin in finger nails of cancerous ones can be resumed to level of normal people by operation.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Anhui Medical University Hospital, Hefei 230022, China. whhy5000@163.com
authors.forename: Hong-Yan
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lü
authors.forename: Fan
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiao-Dong
authors.initials: XD
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Shi-Ping
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: Jiang
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Cheng-Xiang
authors.initials: CX
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry*; D005385:Fingers; D006801:Humans; D009262:Nails / Q000737:chemistry*; D011506:Proteins / Q000737:chemistry; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D011506:Proteins