Application of Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics in Cell Culture, Drug Study, and Diseases

Metabolomics, the global study of metabolites within cells, biofluids, tissues or organisms, has drawn people’s attention in the recent years. As one of the most widely used analytical methods, Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) is commonly used to perform metabolomic analysis. Suitable sample preparation method is needed prior LC separation. It is best to use minimal sample preparation for metabolomics analysis or at least as little as one can get away with considering the purposes of metabolome profiling. Next, identification and quantification of significantly changed metabolites are carried out, with the aim of correlating their changes with pathological states, or with the effect of external influencing factors such as drugs or contaminants. Applications of metabolomics are also presented in this paper through a number of published researches using such methods in cell culture, drug study, and diseases. Overall, we provide an objective description of the LC-MS-based metabolomics, and summarize its application in cell culture, drug study, and diseases.