abstract
This work contributes to fill in some existing gaps in the knowledge of human plasma degradability during handling and storage, a paramount issue in Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) metabolomics. Regarding the comparison between heparin and EDTA anti-coagulant collection tubes, the former showed no interference of the polysaccharide, while conserving full spectral information. In relation to time/temperature conditions, room temperature was seen to have a large impact on lipoproteins and choline compounds from 2.5 hours. In addition, short-term storage at -20 degrees C was found suitable up to 7 days but, for periods up to 1 month, -80 degrees C was recommended. Furthermore, in the case of reusing plasma samples, no more than 3 consecutive freeze-thaw cycles were found advisable. Finally, the impact of long-term -80 degrees C storage (up to 2.5 years) was found almost negligible, as evaluated on a partially matched non-fasting cohort (n = 49), after having investigated the possible confounding nature of the particular non-fasting conditions employed.
keywords
HUMAN BLOOD; H-1-NMR; SERUM; ANTICOAGULANT; SPECTROSCOPY; VALIDATION; COLLECTION; SPECTRA; URINE
subject category
Chemistry
authors
Pinto, J; Domingues, MRM; Galhano, E; Pita, C; Almeida, MD; Carreira, IM; Gil, AM
our authors
Ana Maria Pissarra Coelho Gil
Associate Professor with Aggregation
Joana Isabel Monteiro Pinto
Post-doc Fellowshipacknowledgements
The authors acknowledge funding from the European Regional Development Fund - FEDER through the Competitive Factors Thematic Operational Programme - COMPETE and the Foundation for Science and Technology - FCT, Portugal (PEst-C/CTM/LA0011/2013, PEst-C/QUI/UI0062/2013). J. P. thanks the FCT for SFRH/BD/73343/2010 grant. A. M. G acknowledges the Portuguese National NMR Network (RNRMN), supported with FCT funds, and M. Spraul, Bruker BioSpin, Germany, for access to software and spectral databases.