Abstract:

Objective To access the feasibility of employing metabonomics method in clinical studies. This pilot study intends to introduce nuclear magnetic resonance（NMR）-based metabonomics method to elucidate the metabolism of non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate（NSCLP） patients. Methods High-resolution 1H NMR spectroscopy was performed on blood plasma obtained from NSCLP and non -malformed children. All signal of 1H NMR spectra were recognized within MESTRE -v4.7, and the 1H NMR spectra integration into bins（or buckets） across the spectral regions of bin 0.04 was performed automatically in MESTRE-v4.7. The resulting data matrix was further analyzed, which was performed by SIMCA-P 11.0. The principal component analysis（PCA） was applied to the centered data to explore any clustering behavior of the samples. Results The results demonstrated the metabonomic difference in plasma between NSCLP and non-malformed children at least lies in 3-Hydroxybutyrate γ-CH3, arginine and valine. Arginine excretion appeared to be higher in the non-malformed children population, while NSCLP population excreted higher concentrations of 3-Hydroxybutyrate γ-CH3 and valine. Conclusion The present study clearly demonstrated the great potential of the NMR-based metabonomics approach in elucidating the NSCLP plasma metabolism and the possibility of application in clinic diagnosis and screening.

Key words: metabonomics, non-syndromic cleft lip and/or palate, principal component analysis