HPLC–(Q)-TOF-MS-Based Study of Plasma Metabolic Profile Differences Associated with Age in Pediatric Population Using an Animal Model

Abstract

A deep knowledge about the biological development of children is essential for appropriate drug administration and dosage in pediatrics. In this sense, the best approximation to study organ maturation is the analysis of tissue samples, but it requires invasive methods. For this reason, surrogate matrices should be explored. Among them, plasma emerges as a potential alternative since it represents a snapshot of global organ metabolism. In this work, plasma metabolic profiles from piglets of different ages (newborns, infants, and children) obtained by HPLC–(Q)-TOF-MS at positive and negative ionization modes were studied. Improved clustering within groups was achieved using multiblock principal component analysis compared to classical principal component analysis. Furthermore, the separation observed among groups was better resolved by using partial least squares-discriminant analysis, which was validated by bootstrapping and permutation testing. Thanks to univariate analysis, 13 metabolites in positive and 21 in negative ionization modes were found to be significant to discriminate the three groups of piglets. From these features, an acylcarnitine and eight glycerophospholipids were annotated and identified as metabolites of interest. The findings indicate that there is a relevant change with age in lipid metabolism in which lysophosphatidylcholines and lysophoshatidylethanolamines play an important role.

Excessive exogenous cholesterol activating intestinal LXRα-ABCA1/G5/G8 signaling pathway can not reverse atherosclerosis in ApoE−/− mice

“…Vortex for 20 s, then centrifuges at 4℃ and 18000 rpm for 2 min, suck 350 μL of supernatant into a new 1.5 mL centrifuge tube, centrifuge, concentrate and dry for 2 h. At last, prepare a solution with the volume ratio of methanol to toluene of 9: 1, dissolve the sample in 110 μL of the above solution, vortexe and ultrasonicate for 15 min each, and then centrifuge at 18000 rpm for 10 min. Absorb 60 μL supernatant and put it in the injection vial, and examine it in HPLC-Q-TOF/MS system [ 17 ].…”