Assessment of Analytical Reproducibility of ~(1)H NMR Spectroscopy Based Metabonomics for Large-Scale Epidemiological Research: the INTERMAP Study

摘要

Large-scale population phenotyping for molecular epidemiological studies is subject to all the usual criteria of analytical chemistry. As part of a major phenotyping investigation we have used high-resolution ~(1)H NMR spectroscopy to characterize 24-h urine specimens obtained from population samples in Aito Town, Japan (n velence 259), Chicago, IL (n velence 315), and Guangxi, China (n velence 278). We have investigated analytical reproducibility, urine specimen storage procedures, interinstrument variability, and split specimen detection. Our data show that the multivariate analytical reproducibility of the NMR screening platform was >98percent and that most classification errors were due to urine specimen handling inhomogeneity. Differences in metabolite profiles were then assessed for Aito Town, Chicago, and Guangxi population samples; novel combinations of biomarkers were detected that separated the population samples. These cross-population differences in urinary metabolites could be related to genetic, dietary, and gut microbial factors.