Mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) are physically and functionally connected. This close interaction, via mitochondria-associated membranes, is increasingly explored and supports the importance of studying these two organelles as a whole. Metabolomics and lipidomics are powerful approaches for the exploration of metabolic pathways that may be useful to provide deeper information on these organelles’ functions, dysfunctions, and interactions. We developed a quick and simple experimental procedure for the purification of a mitochondria-ER fraction from human fibroblasts. We applied combined metabolomics and lipidomics analyses by mass spectrometry with excellent reproducibility. Seventy-two metabolites and 418 complex lipids were detected with a mean coefficient of variation around 12%, among which many were specific to the mitochondrial metabolism. Thus this strategy based on robust mitochondria-ER extraction and “omics” combination will be useful for investigating the pathophysiology of complex diseases.

中文翻译：

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线粒体与内质网结合的人成纤维细胞的代谢组学和脂质组学分析：一种可靠的临床研究工具

线粒体和内质网（ER）处于物理和功能连接。通过线粒体相关膜的这种紧密相互作用正在被越来越多地探索，并支持了整体研究这两个细胞器的重要性。代谢组学和脂质组学是探索代谢途径的强大方法，可用于提供有关这些细胞器功能，功能障碍和相互作用的更深入信息。我们开发了一种快速，简单的实验程序，用于从人成纤维细胞中纯化线粒体-ER馏分。我们通过质谱法应用了代谢组学和脂质组学相结合的分析方法，具有出色的重现性。检测到72种代谢物和418种复合脂质，其平均变异系数约为12％，其中许多是针对线粒体代谢的。因此，基于可靠的线粒体-ER提取和“组学”组合的策略将有助于研究复杂疾病的病理生理。