title: Comparison of the metabolic profiling of hepatitis B virus-infected cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis patients by using (1) H NMR-based metabonomics.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aims of the present study were to depict the serum metabolic characteristics of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-infected cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis patients, and to find the specific serum biomarkers associated with the diseases.
  
  
  METHODS
  A pilot metabolic profiling study was conducted using three groups: HBV-infected cirrhosis patients (n = 21), alcoholic cirrhosis patients (n = 20) and healthy controls (n = 20). (1) H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabonomics was used to obtain the serum metabolic profiles of the samples. The acquired data were processed by multivariate principal component analysis (PCA) and orthogonal partial least-squares-discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). The discriminatory metabolites between HBV-infected cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis were further validated by classical biochemical assays.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The OPLS-DA model was capable of distinguishing between HBV-infected and alcoholic cirrhosis patients. Five metabolites, creatine, acetoacetate, isobutyrate, glutamine and glutamate, were identified as the most influential factors to compare HBV-infected cirrhosis and alcoholic cirrhosis. The validation tests showed that the changes of the five metabolites were well coincident with the results of NMR.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  NMR spectra combined with pattern recognition analysis techniques may provide a new way to explore the pathogenesis of HBV-infected and alcoholic cirrhosis patients.
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Laboratory Medical Diagnostics, Ministry of Education, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing             The Second Clinical Medical College, Jinan University, Guangdong, China.
authors.forename: Suwen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Zhiguang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Ouyang
authors.forename: Linxian
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wujian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Peng
authors.forename: Anji
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cai
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Dai