Urinary Metabolomics Study of Biliary Atresia Based on Ultra-High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Linear Ion Trap-Orbitrap Mass Spectrometry

A non-targeted ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with linear ion trap-orbitrap mass spectrometry ( UHPLC-LTQ/Orbitrap-MS ) metabolomics method was established to explore the potential urinary biomarkers of biliary atresia( BA) , and to provide scientific basis for understanding the pathogenesis and early screening of BA. Urine samples from 32 BA infants and 40 normal controls were collected , and metabolic profiles of these urine samples were obtained. Finally, 32 kinds of endogenous differential metabolites were identified as potential biomarkers for BA based on principle component analysis ( PCA ) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis ( OPLS-DA ) . Alanine , aspartic acid and glutamate , arginine and proline , D-glutamate and D-glutamine , histidine , glycine , serine and threonine metabolism pathway were involved in BA, suggesting that there was extensive disorder of amino acid metabolism in the progression of BA. Among them , glutamic acid , L-glutamine , citrulline , proline , glycocyamine , 5 -methylthioadenosine and epsilon-( gamma-Glutamyl) -lysine had obvious upward or downward trends, which are involved in a series of pathological mechanism of BA.