Metabolomics as a global analysis of a large number of cellular metabolites relies heavily on the new developments in separation science and technology. None of the existing analytical techniques can simultaneously separate and measure all the cellular metabolites due to complexity of cellular metabolome and, therefore, a combination of analytical techniques must be used. Currently NMR, GC–MS and LC-MS are most often used in metabolomics. Novel separation methods such as supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC), which can increase metabolome coverage while decreasing cost and analysis time, can provide alternative to other analytical techniques. As a result of major improvements in instrumentation and development of a new diverse column chemistries SFC-MS is increasingly used in a variety of biomedical applications and is becoming an attractive compliment to other major analytical platforms in metabolomics. Despite its potential and advantages, SFC-MS application in metabolomics is limited. Here we provide a brief overview of the latest developments of SFC-MS for metabolomics applications.

代谢组学作为对大量细胞代谢物的全球分析，在很大程度上依赖于分离科学和技术的新发展。由于细胞代谢组的复杂性，现有的分析技术都无法同时分离和测量所有细胞代谢物，因此，必须结合使用多种分析技术。目前，NMR，GC-MS和LC-MS最常用于代谢组学中。超临界流体色谱（SFC）等新颖的分离方法可以增加代谢物的覆盖范围，同时降低成本和分析时间，可以为其他分析技术提供替代方法。由于仪器的重大改进和新的多样化色谱柱化学的开发，SFC-MS越来越多地用于各种生物医学应用中，并且正在成为代谢组学中其他主要分析平台的有力补充。尽管具有潜力和优势，但SFC-MS在代谢组学中的应用受到限制。在这里，我们简要概述了用于代谢组学应用的SFC-MS的最新发展。