The purpose of the present study was to establish an experimental method to study the effects of quercetin on the metabolism of the drug-resistant leukemia cell line K562/ADM using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology. Drug administration to the cells was performed according to proper experimental design and application. The cells were collected and inactivated by repeated freeze-thaw cycles using liquid nitrogen. Methanol (80%) was used to extract cell metabolites, and a sample concentrator (Termovap, ECOM, Czech Republic) was used to purify the samples. All samples were assessed using 500 MHz NMR (Bruker, Germany) with standard NOESY impulse sequence to obtain 1H-NMR spectra of cell metabolites. The processing method used to assess cell metabolism established in the present study was convenient and led to minimal loss of cell metabolites. The 1H-NMR spectra obtained using NMR technology reliably reflected changes in cell metabolism.
