Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry screening of serum metabolomic biomarkers in hepatitis B virus infected cirrhosis patients

Background: Metabolomic studies have been applied to disease biomarkers selection. With the metabolomic technique, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS), human serum metabolites can be detected and identified. The purpose of this study was to investigate the serum metabolic profile of hepatitis B virus (HBV) infected cirrhosis patients and to detect disease biomarkers. Methods: HBV infected non-cirrhosis male subjects (ns20) and HBV infected cirrhosis male patients (ns20) participated in this experiment. Serum metabolome was detected through chemical derivatization followed by GC/MS. The high- flux metabolomic data were analyzed by stepwise discriminant analysis. Results: Out of the 41 metabolites detected in serum, we selected metabolites, including acetic acid, sorbitol, D-lactic acid, hexanoic acid, 1-naphthalenamine, butanoic acid, phosphoric acid, D-glucitol, and glucose, which in combination with each other could segregate the two groups. The error count was 0% for the non-cirrhosis group and 25% for the cirrhosis group. Conclusions: This technique can be used to select biomarkers for hepatic cirrhosis.