Liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry-based plasma metabonomics delineate the effect of metabolites' stability on reliability of potential biomarkers.

Metabonomics is an important platform for investigating the metabolites of integrated living systems and their dynamic responses to changes caused by both endogenous and exogenous factors. A metabonomics strategy based on liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry in both positive and negative ion modes was applied to investigate the short-term and long-term stability of metabolites in plasma. Principal components analysis and ten types of identified metabolites were used to summarize the time-dependent change rules in metabolites systematically at different temperatures. The long-term stability of metabolites in plasma specimens stored at -80 °C for five years was also studied. Analysis of these subjects identified 36 metabolites with statistically significant changes in expression (p < 0.05) and found a kind of metabolite with a hundred-fold change. The stability of metabolites in blood at 4 °C for 24 h was also investigated. These studies show that a thorough understanding of the effects of metabolite stability are necessary for improving the reliability of potential biomarkers.