Metabolic phenotyping in mouse and man: Mind the differences!

Publication date: January 2015 Source:New Horizons in Translational Medicine, Volume 2, Issue 2 Author(s): Denise Sonntag , Guido Krebiehl , Torben Friedrich Metabolic phenotyping comprises the quantification of endogenous metabolites in biofluids, cells, and tissues. It provides insights into normal as well as aberrant metabolic pathways and biological processes, which is important for the understanding of disease phenotypes. It also allows the identification of biological markers, which can serve as early disease indicators and therapeutic markers for the evaluation of treatment effects. As metabolic markers are not species-restricted, the concept of metabolic phenotyping is highly applicable for translational research. Species independence allows the use of established animal and cell culture models for various diseases within a preclinical context. However, differences in the metabolic set-up of study organisms compared to humans needs to be taken into consideration to prevent misleading conclusions from otherwise valid experimental designs. To determine species-related metabolic differences, a targeted metabolomics approach was applied using a mass spectrometry platform for the quantification of a predefined set of endogenous metabolites, i.e. amino acids, biogenic amines, phosphatidylcholines, sphingomyelins, hexoses, steroid hormones and others. Results from this species comparison on the metabolic level will be presented. Overall, the validity of metabolic phen...

Source: New Horizons in Translational Medicine - February 8, 2015 Category: Research Source Type: research