Global analysis of metabolites in rat and human urine based on gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry

Jiye A, Qing Huang, Guangji Wang, Weibin Zha, Bei Yan, Hongcan Ren, Shenghua Gu, Ying Zhang, Qi Zhang, Feng Shao, Longsheng Sheng, Jianguo Sun

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

50 Scopus citations

Abstract

Sediment in urine may contain low-molecular-weight compounds that should be included in the analysis. To date, no systematic investigation has addressed this issue. We investigated three primary factors that influence the extraction efficiency of metabolites during preparation of urine samples for metabolomic research: centrifugation, pH, and extraction solvents. Obtained with the use of gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry (GC/TOFMS) technique and principal component analysis (PCA), our results indicate that (1) conventional centrifugation causes an apparent loss of some metabolites, indicating that urine samples for metabolomic research should not be centrifuged before procedures are undertaken to recover the metabolites; (2) pH adjustment has a large impact on the recovery of metabolites and is therefore not encouraged; (3) with design of experiment analysis, methanol and water yield the optimal extraction efficiency. Differences between rat and human urine were observed and are discussed. Ninety-nine metabolites identified in rat and human urine are presented. An efficient protocol is proposed for the pretreatment of urine samples.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)20-26
Number of pages7
JournalAnalytical Biochemistry
Volume379
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Design of experiment
  • Gas chromatography/time-of-flight mass spectrometry
  • Metabolomics
  • Principal component analysis
  • Urine metabolites

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