Phosphorus 31 NMR of neuroblastoma clonal lines. Effect of cell confluency state and dibutyryl cyclic AMP.

Phosphorus nuclear magnetic resonance is used to study changes in the levels of the major phosphate-containing intermediary metabolites concomitant with induced cellular differentiation in the N-18 and C-46 neuroblastoma clonal lines. The study reveals differences between the 31P-NMR profiles of the two clonal lines and also striking differences attendant to dibutyryl cAMP-mediated morphological differentiation in the N-18 clone. Phosphorus-31 NMR would appear to provide a new technique with which to study genetic differentiation.