Advances in high-resolution, nontargeted mass spectrometry allow for the simultaneous measure of thousands of metabolites in a single biosample. Application of these analytical approaches to population-scale human studies has been limited by the need for resource-intensive blood sample collection, preparation, and storage. Dried blood spotting, a technique developed decades ago for newborn screening, may offer a simple approach to overcome barriers in human blood acquisition and storage. In this study, we find that over 4,400 spectral features across diverse chemical classes may be efficiently and reproducibly extracted and relatively quantified from human dried blood spots using nontargeted metabolomic analysis employing HILIC and reversed-phase liquid chromatography coupled to Orbitrap mass spectrometry. Moreover, over 80% of metabolites were found to be chemically stable in dried blood spots stored at room temperature for up to a week. In direct relation to plasma samples, dried blood spots exhibited comparable representation of the human circulating metabolome, capturing both known and previously uncharacterized metabolites. Dried blood spot approaches provide an opportunity for rapid and facile human biosampling and storage and will enable widespread metabolomics study of populations, particularly in resource-limited areas.

中文翻译：

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用于研究人类循环代谢组的干血斑非靶向质谱分析

高分辨率、非靶向质谱的进步允许同时测量单个生物样品中的数千种代谢物。这些分析方法在人口规模人类研究中的应用受到资源密集型血样采集、制备和储存需求的限制。干血点样技术是几十年前开发的用于新生儿筛查的技术，它可能提供一种简单的方法来克服人体血液采集和储存中的障碍。在这项研究中，我们发现，使用 HILIC 和反相液相色谱与 Orbitrap 质谱联用的非靶向代谢组学分析，可以从人类干血斑中高效、可重复地提取和相对量化超过 4,400 种不同化学类别的光谱特征。而且，发现超过 80% 的代谢物在室温下储存长达一周的干血斑中化学稳定。与血浆样本直接相关，干燥的血斑表现出与人类循环代谢组相当的表现，捕获已知和以前未表征的代谢物。干血点方法为快速简便的人体生物采样和储存提供了机会，并将实现对人群的广泛代谢组学研究，特别是在资源有限的地区。