Analysis of metabolites is often performed using separations coupled to mass spectrometry which is challenging due to their vast structural heterogeneity and variable charge states. Metabolites are often separated based on their class/functional group which in large part determine their acidity or basicity. This charge state dictates the ionization mode and efficiency of the molecule. To improve the sensitivity and expand the coverage of the mammalian metabolome, multifunctional derivatization with sheathless CE-ESI-MS was undertaken. In this work, amines, hydroxyls and carboxylates were labeled with tertiary amines tags. This derivatization was performed in under 100 min and resulted in high positive charge states for all analytes investigated. Amino acids and organic acids showed average limits of detection of 76 nM with good linearity of 0.96 and 10% RSD for peak area. Applying this metabolomic profiling system to bovine aortic endothelial cells showed changes in 15 metabolites after treatment with high glucose. The sample injection volume on-capillary was <300 cells for quantitative analyses. Targeted metabolites were found in human tissue, which indicates possible application of the system complex metabolome quantitation.

代谢物的分析通常使用与质谱联用的分离方法进行，由于其巨大的结构异质性和可变的电荷状态，因此具有挑战性。代谢物通常根据其类别/功能基团进行分离，这在很大程度上决定了它们的酸度或碱性。该电荷状态决定了分子的电离模式和效率。为了提高敏感性并扩大哺乳动物代谢组的覆盖范围，采用无鞘CE-ESI-MS进行了多功能衍生化。在这项工作中，胺，羟基和羧酸盐用叔胺标签标记。该衍生化过程在不到100分钟的时间内完成，并为所有研究的分析物带来了高正电荷状态。氨基酸和有机酸的平均检出限为76 nM，线性良好，为0。峰面积的RSD为96和10％。将这种代谢组学分析系统应用于牛主动脉内皮细胞后，高葡萄糖处理后的15种代谢产物发生了变化。毛细管上的样品进样量<300个细胞用于定量分析。在人体组织中发现了靶向代谢物，这表明系统复杂代谢组定量的可能应用。