Detection of Semi-polar Vitamins and Nutrients in Biological Samples

Metabolomics is used to examine metabolite fluctuations in biological systems and enables the diagnosis of metabolic disorders and the identification of new therapeutic targets.1 Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) was utilized to develop a new method using a T3 column to separate small molecule nutrients and vitamins in a tissue sample. Initial tests of column performance used standard solutions; the amount of metabolites identified and the elution profile of these metabolites was examined. Both the standard solution and sample of brain tissue were tested with the final method developed. Six metabolites were identified in the standard and 31 were identified in the tissue sample. Two of these metabolites were the same: creatine and pyridoxine. However, broad peaks for some metabolites were observed in the chromatography. The method developed was able to separate and identify metabolites from a biological sample, however, based on the multiple elution points of certain compounds during both the standard and the tissue sample, it was determined that the method should be further modified