title: Quantitative serum nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomics in cardiovascular epidemiology and genetics.
abstract: Metabolomics is becoming common in epidemiology due to recent developments in quantitative profiling technologies and appealing results from their applications for understanding health and disease. Our team has developed an automated high-throughput serum NMR metabolomics platform that provides quantitative molecular data on 14 lipoprotein subclasses, their lipid concentrations and composition, apolipoprotein A-I and B, multiple cholesterol and triglyceride measures, albumin, various fatty acids as well as on numerous low-molecular-weight metabolites, including amino acids, glycolysis related measures and ketone bodies. The molar concentrations of these measures are obtained from a single serum sample with costs comparable to standard lipid measurements. We have analyzed almost 250 000 samples from around 100 epidemiological cohorts and biobanks and the new international set-up of multiple platforms will allow an annual throughput of more than 250 000 samples. The molecular data have been used to study type 1 and type 2 diabetes etiology as well as to characterize the molecular reflections of the metabolic syndrome, long-term physical activity, diet and lipoprotein metabolism. The results have revealed new biomarkers for early atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, diabetic nephropathy, cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. We have also combined genomics and metabolomics in diverse studies. We envision that quantitative high-throughput NMR metabolomics will be incorporated as a routine in large biobanks; this would make perfect sense both from the biological research and cost point of view - the standard output of over 200 molecular measures would vastly extend the relevance of the sample collections and make many separate clinical chemistry assays redundant.
authors.affiliation: From the Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (P.S., A.J.K., P.W., T.S., M.A.-K.); NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland (P.S., M.A.-K.); Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland (M.A.-K.); and Computational Medicine, School of Social and Community Medicine and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom (M.A.-K.).
authors.forename: Pasi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Soininen
authors.affiliation: From the Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (P.S., A.J.K., P.W., T.S., M.A.-K.); NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland (P.S., M.A.-K.); Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland (M.A.-K.); and Computational Medicine, School of Social and Community Medicine and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom (M.A.-K.).
authors.forename: Antti J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Kangas
authors.affiliation: From the Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (P.S., A.J.K., P.W., T.S., M.A.-K.); NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland (P.S., M.A.-K.); Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland (M.A.-K.); and Computational Medicine, School of Social and Community Medicine and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom (M.A.-K.).
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Würtz
authors.affiliation: From the Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (P.S., A.J.K., P.W., T.S., M.A.-K.); NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland (P.S., M.A.-K.); Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland (M.A.-K.); and Computational Medicine, School of Social and Community Medicine and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom (M.A.-K.).
authors.forename: Teemu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Suna
authors.affiliation: From the Computational Medicine, Institute of Health Sciences, University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland (P.S., A.J.K., P.W., T.S., M.A.-K.); NMR Metabolomics Laboratory, School of Pharmacy, University of Eastern Finland, Kuopio, Finland (P.S., M.A.-K.); Oulu University Hospital, Oulu, Finland (M.A.-K.); and Computational Medicine, School of Social and Community Medicine and Medical Research Council Integrative Epidemiology Unit, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom (M.A.-K.). mika.ala-korpela@computationalmedicine.fi.
authors.forename: Mika
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ala-Korpela
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000097:blood / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D011859:Radiography
keywords: genetics; lipoprotein; metabolism; metabolomics; risk assessment