Endocrinol Metab.  2016 Mar;31(1):7-16. 10.3803/EnM.2016.31.1.7.

Understanding Metabolomics in Biomedical Research

• Kim SJ
• Kim SH
• Kim JH
• Hwang S
• Yoo HJ

• KMID: 2169686
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.3803/EnM.2016.31.1.7

Abstract

The term "omics" refers to any type of specific study that provides collective information on a biological system. Representative omics includes genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, and new omics is constantly being added, such as lipidomics or glycomics. Each omics technique is crucial to the understanding of various biological systems and complements the information provided by the other approaches. The main strengths of metabolomics are that metabolites are closely related to the phenotypes of living organisms and provide information on biochemical activities by reflecting the substrates and products of cellular metabolism. The transcriptome does not always correlate with the proteome, and the translated proteome might not be functionally active. Therefore, their changes do not always result in phenotypic alterations. Unlike the genome or proteome, the metabolome is often called the molecular phenotype of living organisms and is easily translated into biological conditions and disease states. Here, we review the general strategies of mass spectrometry-based metabolomics. Targeted metabolome or lipidome analysis is discussed, as well as nontargeted approaches, with a brief explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of each platform. Biomedical applications that use mass spectrometry-based metabolomics are briefly introduced.

Keyword

Metabolomics; Mass spectrometry; Metabolic profiling; Targeted metabolomics; Lipidomics

MeSH Terms

Complement System Proteins
Genome
Genomics
Glycomics
Mass Spectrometry
Metabolism
Metabolome
Metabolomics*
Phenotype
Proteome
Proteomics
Transcriptome
Complement System Proteins
Proteome

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Conventional omics studies in biology. There are various types of omics, from genomics to metabolomics, and new omics studies are being constantly added, such as lipidomics or glycomics.

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  Fig. 2 Instrumentation for metabolomics. Analytical instruments for metabolomics should be able to detect various kinds of metabolites present in biological systems. NMR, nuclear magnetic resonance; FTIR, Fourier transform infrared.

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  Fig. 3 General workflow in metabolomics. The metabolomics workflow generally follows the strategy above. However, detailed experimental procedures can be different, especially for targeted metabolomics.

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  Fig. 4 Chemical derivatization for fatty acids. (A) Methyl esterification reaction of fatty acids. (B) pentafluorobenzyl (PFB) derivatization reaction for short-chain fatty acids. (C) Trimethylsilyl derivatization reaction for short-chain fatty acids. PFBB, 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorobenzyl bromide. BSTFA, N, O-bis(trimethyl-silyl) trifluoroacetamide.

• 

  Fig. 5 (A) Extracted ion chromatogram for prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and prostaglandin D2 (PGD2). Liquid chromatography (LC) separation was able to successfully differentiate these isobaric lipids. (B) Total ion chromatogram observed from eicosanoid profiling using LC-mass spectrometry (MS)/MS. cps, counts per second.

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