Metabolomics:Open Access

Currently, the expense of biomedical scientific investigations is expanding greatly. A great part of these biomedical studies is repeat work and less significance. Mathematics or physics-majored students and talents have a number of unique characters that are very important for biomedical scientific investigations-include disciplinary, good intuitions, sensitive to numbers, higher logic ability of data abstraction/deductions and new model imaginative capability. They can play unique roles in the fields of biomedical science study. In order to update biomedical studies, it is a good way to recruit more mathematics or physics-majored students and talents. This editorial offers our vision on this matter. Possible future achievements are foresighted herein.

Osteoprotegerin (OPG) is a soluble member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, which exhibits the close link to Cardiovascular (CV) disease in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (T2DM). Recent clinical studies have been shown that elevated OPG might be a marker of vascular calcification / remodeling and CV events and CV mortality in T2DM without known CV disease. However, it remains unclear whether OPG would be a target for therapy of diabetics with antidiabetic drugs and statins. The aim of the mini review: to summarize knowledge with respect to OPG utilization as predictor of CV adverse effects and as a target of therapy in T2DM. The review is discussed the evidence regarding possibility to prevent microvascular and macrovascular complications in diabetics through control of OPG level as a target in therapy. Although there are not irresistible findings that the post-treatment OPG level in diabetics and CV events might be related, possibility to use OPG for risk stratification of vascular remodeling / ectopic calcification and CV-related mortality in T2DM appears to be attractive. The future investigations are needed to explain whether serum OPG would be informative for biomarker-guided therapy in T2DM individuals.

Glycogen is the primary storage form of glucose, which is metabolized actively in the liver and skeletal muscle of mammals. The skeletal muscle glycogen is used intracellularly to provide starting substrate for glycolysis, whereas liver glycogen is used mainly for the maintenance of blood glucose homeostasis. The conversion of glucose to glycogen is an ordered process, in which the enzyme glycogen synthase plays an essential role. The key events in the synthesis of glycogen have been elucidated in both the liver and muscle. The process of understanding the regulatory mechanism of glycogen synthase activity has led to the discoveries of many important players in cellular metabolism. Research in identifying factors modulating muscle glycogen synthesis has been of popular interest within the past decade. The goal of this review is to summarize potential factors affecting skeletal muscle glycogen synthase expression level and activity in literatures published for the past decade.

Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) has been broadly used for the detection of changes in metabolite levels in complex samples. Internal Standards (IS) spiked into a complex background at different concentrations help assess the capability of GC-MS in detecting changes in metabolite levels. This study uses a Latin square design to evaluate the ability of GC-MS in full scan and Single Ion Monitoring (SIM) modes to detect changes among IS spiked into human plasma samples at varying concentrations. Statistical analysis of the data demonstrates the potential of GC-MS to detect true differences over a wide range of concentration levels.

A magnesium deficiency is known to be involved in the pathogenesis of cardiovascular diseases. In patients with essential hypertension intima media thickness is increased in about 70% (ELSA Study). In our study, we investigated 21 patients (10 female, 11 male, average age 56.3 ± 6.6 years) with untreated essential hypertension (grades I and II according to WHO guidelines). All patients had a hypomagnesiaemia in serum (1.57 ± 0.11 mg%). In all patients we found a significant increase in intima media thickness of arteria carotis communis (0.97 ± 0.08 mm) (r=-0.869, p<0.0001). The results show that a magnesium deficiency in patients with essential hypertension may be of special pathogenetic importance. In addition, the role of magnesium deficiency in the development of arteriosclerosis has to be discussed. Furthermore, we demonstrated a connection between magnesium deficiency and an increased intima media thickness. In this context, calcium antagonist therapy or magnesium supplementation may be of advantage when treating intima media thickness in hypertension. In addition in essential hypertensives with diabetes mellitus type IIb showing lowered magnesium (1.72 ± 0.08 mg/ dl) and vitamin D (9.55 ± 4.74 ng/ml) levels interleukine 6 concentrations were 8.57 ± 4.14 pg/ml (p<0.01 vs. controls) being a risk factor for metabolic disorder, e. g. arteriosclerosis.

Cantonese Herbal Tea (CHT) is consumed in south China to alleviate feelings of discomfort due to the over-heat and humidity in the body, but the related molecular mechanisms behind its effects remain obscure. The urinary metabolic responses to CHT over time in rats were investigated during a 38-day-period using GC-MS-based metabonomics. Integrated with student’s t-test and Orthogonal Projection on Latent Structures Discriminant Analysis (OPLS-DA) at each time point revealed that the process could be divided into two stages. In the first stage, the bioefficacy was characterized by elevated antioxidant activity and the depletion of oxidative stresses. However, the effect was reduced with time and replaced by a second stage characterized by the decreased flow of energy metabolism and an imbalance in gut microbiota. In conclusion, metabonomics study gained insight into the metabolic changes induced by CHT intake and the extent to which CHT intake influences the urinary metabolome, which also provides a powerful method for understanding the mechanism of CHT.