Determination of the Minimum Sample Amount for Capillary Electrophoresis-Fourier Transform Mass Spectrometry (CE-FTMS)-Based Metabolomics of Colorectal Cancer Biopsies

Abstract

The minimum sample volume for capillary electrophoresis-Fourier transform mass spectrometry (CE-FTMS) useful for analyzing hydrophilic metabolites was investigated using samples obtained from colorectal cancer patients. One, two, five, and ten biopsies were collected from tumor and nontumor parts of the surgically removed specimens from each of the five patients who had undergone colorectal cancer surgery. Metabolomics was performed on the collected samples using CE-FTMS. To determine the minimum number of specimens based on data volume and biological interpretability, we compared the number of annotated metabolites in each sample with different numbers of biopsies and conducted principal component analysis (PCA), hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), quantitative enrichment analysis (QEA), and random forest analysis (RFA). The number of metabolites detected in one biopsy was significantly lower than those in 2, 5, and 10 biopsies, whereas those detected among 2, 5, and 10 pieces were not significantly different. Moreover, a binary classification model developed by RFA based on 2-biopsy data perfectly distinguished tumor and nontumor samples with 5- and 10-biopsy data. Taken together, two biopsies would be sufficient for CE-FTMS-based metabolomics from a data content and biological interpretability viewpoint, which opens the gate of biopsy metabolomics for practical clinical applications.

Capillary Electrophoresis: A Three-Year Literature Review

“…Moreover, reference intervals for 53 serum metabolites were consistently identified, which may be used to assess the possible adverse maternal health conditions. In contrast to large cohorts, researchers also worked on reasonably explaining the differences of metabolite levels in different individuals with a minimal sample amount to shorten analysis time . The optimal number of biopsies was determined in CE-MS for analyzing hydrophilic metabolites from colorectal cancer patients.…”

Review on analytical technologies and applications in metabolomics

“…In metabolomics, CE-MS was used to analyze the metabolites of Bacillus subtilis, and 1692 peaks were obtained. At present, CE-MS analysis of metabolites is widely used in environmental, biomedical, clinical medicine, plant metabolism and so on [100,107].…”

Distinctive Molecular and Metabolic Profiles of Chemically Synthesized Psilocybin and Psychedelic Mushroom Extract

“…The ltrate was evaporated to dryness under vacuum and reconstituted in Milli-Q water for metabolome analysis. Metabolomic analysis was performed for PSIL, PME and VEH treated mice using untargeted CE-FTMS 35 . Extracted metabolites were measured in the Cation and Anion modes of CE-FTMS based metabolome analysis.…”