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Recommendations for sample selection, collection and preparation for NMR-based metabolomics studies of blood

  • Abdul Hamid Emwas*
  • , Helena U. Zacharias
  • , Marcos Rodrigo Alborghetti
  • , G. A.Nagana Gowda
  • , Daniel Raftery
  • , Ryan T. McKay
  • , Chung Ke Chang
  • , Edoardo Saccenti
  • , Wolfram Gronwald
  • , Sven Schuchardt
  • , Roland Leiminger
  • , Jasmeen Merzaban
  • , Nour Y. Madhoun
  • , Mazhar Iqbal
  • , Rawiah A. Alsiary
  • , Rupali Shivapurkar
  • , Arnab Pain
  • , Dhanasekaran Shanmugam
  • , Danielle Ryan
  • , Raja Roy
  • Horst Joachim Schirra, Vanessa Morris, Ana Carolina Zeri, Fatimah Alahmari, Rima Kaddurah-Daouk, Reza M. Salek, Marcia LeVatte, Mark Berjanskii, Brian Lee, David S. Wishart
*Corresponding author for this work
  • King Abdullah University of Science and Technology
  • Hannover Medical School
  • Centro Nacional de Pesquisa em Energia e Materiais
  • University of Washington
  • University of Alberta
  • Academia Sinica, Biomedical Translation Research Center
  • Wageningen University & Research
  • University of Regensburg
  • Fraunhofer Institute for Toxicology and Experimental Medicine
  • Bruker Corporation
  • National Institute for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering
  • King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences
  • CSIR - National Chemical Laboratory
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Sciences Campus
  • Griffith University Queensland
  • University of Queensland
  • University of Canterbury
  • Duke University
  • University of Cambridge

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Metabolic profiling of blood metabolites, particularly in plasma and serum, is vital for studying human diseases, human conditions, drug interventions and toxicology. The clinical significance of blood arises from its close ties to all human cells and facile accessibility. However, patient-specific variables such as age, sex, diet, lifestyle and health status, along with pre-analytical conditions (sample handling, storage, etc.), can significantly affect metabolomic measurements in whole blood, plasma, or serum studies. These factors, referred to as confounders, must be mitigated to reveal genuine metabolic changes due to illness or intervention onset. Review objective: This review aims to aid metabolomics researchers in collecting reliable, standardized datasets for NMR-based blood (whole/serum/plasma) metabolomics. The goal is to reduce the impact of confounding factors and enhance inter-laboratory comparability, enabling more meaningful outcomes in metabolomics studies. Key concepts: This review outlines the main factors affecting blood metabolite levels and offers practical suggestions for what to measure and expect, how to mitigate confounding factors, how to properly prepare, handle and store blood, plasma and serum biosamples and how to report data in targeted NMR-based metabolomics studies of blood, plasma and serum.

Original languageEnglish
Article number66
JournalMetabolomics
Volume21
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2025

Keywords

  • Blood
  • Metabolites
  • Metabolomics
  • NMR
  • Plasma
  • Serum
  • Standardization

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