title: Saturated fatty acids as possible important metabolites for epithelial ovarian cancer based on the free and esterified fatty acid profiles determined by GC-MS analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aims were to investigate the serum free fatty acid (FFA) and esterified fatty acid (EFA) profiles and to identify biomarkers that can be used to identify patients with epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) based on the metabolomics approach.
  
  
  METHODS
  We applied a targeted gas chromatography-mass spectrometry metabolomics approach to serum samples from 40 EOC patients and 35 healthy controls for achieving the FFA and EFA profiles. These metabolite profiles were processed using multivariate analysis to obtain potential biomarkers. And then, some independent samples were chosen to validate these potential biomarkers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  There were higher saturated fatty acids and lower unsaturated fatty acids in EOC patients when compared with the healthy controls. EFA (C16:0), EFA (C18:0) and FFA (C16:0) were identified as potential biomarkers that distinguished EOC from the healthy controls. The areas under the curve from the EFA (C16:0), EFA (C18:0) and FFA (C16:0) in validated study were 0.745, 0.701, 0.682, respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study provides useful information to bridge the gaps in our understanding to the fatty acids metabolic alterations associated with EOC, and this study has demonstrated saturated fatty acid biomarkers might be helpful for the detection and characterization of EOC patients.
authors: Department of Analytical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.|Department of Analytical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors: Rui
authors: R
authors: Yin
authors: The Affiliated Tumor Hospital of Harbin Medical University, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.|Department of Analytical Chemistry, College of Pharmacy, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors: Tongshu
authors: T
authors: Yang
authors: Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, College of Pharmacy, Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors: Hui
authors: H
authors: Su
authors: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Public Health College, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors: Li
authors: L
authors: Ying
authors: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Public Health College, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors: Liyan
authors: L
authors: Liu
authors: Department of Nutrition and Food Hygiene, Public Health College, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, Heilongjiang, China.
authors: Changhao
authors: C
authors: Sun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D019540:Area Under Curve; D015415:Biomarkers; D000077216:Carcinoma, Ovarian Epithelial; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005227:Fatty Acids / Q000378:metabolism*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D055442:Metabolome; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods; D008875:Middle Aged; D060787:Neoplasm Grading; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009375:Neoplasms, Glandular and Epithelial / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D015203:Reproducibility of Results
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D005227:Fatty Acids
keywords: Biomarker; Free and esterified fatty acids; Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; Metabolomics; epithelial ovarian cancer