A pragmatic and readily implemented quality control strategy for HPLC-MS and GC-MS-based metabonomic analysis

Abstract

Metabonomic/metabolomic studies can involve the analysis of large numbers of samples for the detection of biomarkers and confidence in the analytical data, generated by methods such as GC and HPLC-MS, requires active measures on the part of the analyst. However, quality control for complex multi-component samples such as biofluids, where many of the components of interest in the sample are unknown prior to analysis, poses significant problems. Here the repeat analysis of a pooled sample throughout the run, thereby enabling the analysis to be monitored and controlled using targeted inspection of the data and pattern recognition, is advocated as a pragmatic solution to this problem.

Plasma metabonomics study of rheumatoid arthritis and its Chinese medicine subtypes by using liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry

“…The utilization of QC samples throughout the analytical run to monitor the data quality was a pragmatic solution for complex multi-component based metabomonic research. 14,15 As Fig. S1 in the ESI shows,w the QC samples clustered closely together in the PCA score plots, which means that the analytical systems were stable and reliable.…”

Potential serum biomarkers from a metabolomics study of autism

“…To assure precision and repeatability of our sample analysis, we used pooled samples in both the discovery cohort (total 40 samples: 6 for precision and 14 for repeatability for each the positive and negative mode) and the validation cohort (total 52 samples: 6 for precision and 20 for repeatability for each the positive and negative mode) analyses for quality control (QC). [38][39][40] The pooled samples were prepared by mixing equal volumes of serum (100 μL) from 15 control and 15 autism samples in each analysis, respectively. We analyzed these QC samples together with study samples.…”

Effect of the traditional Chinese medicine tongxinluo on endothelial dysfunction rats studied by using urinary metabonomics based on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry

“…The total peak area of either ion mode in each chromatogram was set to 10,000. Ions with less than 30% relative standard deviation (RSD) in QC samples [16,17] were retained for further PCA modeling, as they were considered stable enough for prolonged LC-MS analysis,.…”