Plasma Preparation Method for Metabolomics Analysis Based on Rapid Resolution Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry

Different methods for plasma preparation in metabolomics analysis were compared in this study. Plasma proteins were either precipitated with four different organic solvents or subjected to solid phase extraction (SPE) on C-18-boned phase, with consideration to the number of extracted standard compounds. The eluent was subjected to analyze by rapid resolution liquid chromatography (RRLC)-MS. The results indicated that acetonitrile could effectively precipitated plasma proteins, and had the best extracting effect. Three fold cold acetonitrile coupled with slow precipitation was optimal. The results, according to the reproducibility, precision and stability of the sample, showed that the method was satisfactory and would be applied in metabolomics analysis of plasma preparation. Furthermore, reproducibility of the method verified by PCA analysis is sufficient to ensure data quality in metabolomics applications by carefully monitoring of the quality control samples randomly inserted among the real sample queue. The method could be applied in the metabolomics study.