Scientists currently use only a small portion of the information contained in the blood\nmetabolome. The identification of metabolites is a huge challenge because only highly abundant\nand well-separated compounds can be easily identified in complex samples. However, new\napproaches that enhance the identification of compounds have emerged; among them, the\nidentification of compounds based on their involvement in a particular biological context is a recent\ndevelopment. In this work, this approach was first applied to identify metabolites in complex\nsamples and, together with metabolite set enrichment analysis, was used for the evaluation of blood\nplasma from obese patients. The proposed approach was found to provide a statistically sound\noverview of the biochemical pathways, thus presenting additional information on obesity. Obesity\nprogression was demonstrated to be accompanied by marked alterations in steroidogenesis,\nandrostenedione metabolism, and androgen and estrogen metabolism. The findings of this study\nsuggest that the workflow used for blood analysis is sufficient to demonstrate obesity at the\nbiochemical pathway level as well as to monitor the response to treatment. This workflow is also\nexpected to be suitable for studying other metabolic diseases.
Loading....