Analysis of sequential hair segments reflects changes in the metabolome across the trimesters of pregnancy

Abstract

The hair metabolome has been recognized as a valuable source of information in pregnancy research, as it provides stable metabolite information that could assist with studying biomarkers or metabolic mechanisms of pregnancy and its complications. We tested the hypothesis that hair segments could be used to reflect a metabolite profile containing information from both endogenous and exogenous compounds accumulated during the nine months of pregnancy. Segments of hair samples corresponding to the trimesters were collected from 175 pregnant women in New Zealand. The hair samples were analysed using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry. In healthy pregnancies, 56 hair metabolites were significantly different between the first and second trimesters, while 62 metabolites were different between the first and third trimesters (p < 0.05). Additionally, three metabolites in the second trimester hair samples were significantly different between healthy controls and women who delivered small-for-gestational-age infants (p < 0.05), and ten metabolites in third trimester hair were significantly different between healthy controls and women with gestational diabetes mellitus (p < 0.01). The findings from this pilot study provide improved insight into the changes of the hair metabolome during pregnancy, as well as highlight the potential of the maternal hair metabolome to differentiate pregnancy complications from healthy pregnancies.

Impact of pregnancy on inborn errors of metabolism

“…2 . These changes are evidenced by recent metabolomic studies [ 18 ]. The differential between maternal and foetal plasma amino acid levels varies between individual amino acids and across trimesters.…”

Revealing Metabolic Perturbation Following Heavy Methamphetamine Abuse by Human Hair Metabolomics and Network Analysis

“…Lipophilic and uncharged molecules can easily cross membranes and exist in matrix cells [ 35 , 39 ]. However, amino acids, organic acids, and fatty acids were most often identified in previous human hair metabolic studies [ 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 ]. In our study, 22 acylcarnitines, 22 amino acids and biogenic amines, 39 glycerophospholipids, and 7 sphingolipids were (semi-)quantified in human hair, and their distribution was investigated on the basis of heavy MA abuse in the targeted analysis.…”

“…Thus, clarifying conclusive metabolic disturbances in drug addiction caused by repetitions of the drug dependence cycle using blood or urine analysis is not straightforward. Recently, hair metabolomics was suggested as a more appropriate tool than conventional ones for the discovery of robust biomarkers, in particular for chronic diseases [ 18 , 19 ] and pregnancy complications [ 20 , 21 , 22 ] or embryopathy [ 23 ] via maternal hair metabolome profiling. Hair is a valuable specimen reflecting the effects of chronic toxicant exposure because of its extended window of detection, stable and repeatable measurement of accumulated substances, and easy sample storage [ 24 ].…”

Towards Best Practice in Hair Metabolomic Studies: Systematic Investigation on the Impact of Hair Length and Color

“…Recently, a study by Delplancke et al investigated the longitudinal metabolite profile in segmented hair samples from healthy pregnant women corresponding to the three trimesters of pregnancy [ 17 ]. They identified significantly altered metabolites between the different trimesters.…”