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Metabolomics: From Fundamentals to Clinical Applications pp 3–17Cite as

Metabolomics: Definitions and Significance in Systems Biology

Part of the Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology book series (PMISB,volume 965)

Abstract

Nowadays, there is a growing interest in deeply understanding biological mechanisms not only at the molecular level (biological components) but also the effects of an ongoing biological process in the organism as a whole (biological functionality), as established by the concept of systems biology. Within this context, metabolomics is one of the most powerful bioanalytical strategies that allow obtaining a picture of the metabolites of an organism in the course of a biological process, being considered as a phenotyping tool. Briefly, metabolomics approach consists in identifying and determining the set of metabolites (or specific metabolites) in biological samples (tissues, cells, fluids, or organisms) under normal conditions in comparison with altered states promoted by disease, drug treatment, dietary intervention, or environmental modulation. The aim of this chapter is to review the fundamentals and definitions used in the metabolomics field, as well as to emphasize its importance in systems biology and clinical studies.

Keywords

  • Metabolomics
  • Systems Biology
  • Targeted Metabolomics
  • Untargeted Metabolomics
  • Lipidomics
  • Clinical Metabolomics

The original version of this book was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47656-8_14

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Fig. 1.1
Fig. 1.2

Abbreviations

CE:

Capillary electrophoresis

DA:

Discriminant analysis

DI:

Direct infusion

GC:

Gas chromatography

HPLC:

High-performance liquid chromatography

IPLC:

Ion-pairing liquid chromatography

LC:

Liquid chromatography

MALDI:

Matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization

MS:

Mass spectrometry

MSI:

Mass spectrometry imaging

NMR:

Nuclear magnetic resonance

PCA:

Principal component analysis

PLS:

Partial least squares

OPLS:

Orthogonal projections to latent structures

QC:

Quality control

SRM:

Selected reaction monitoring

UPLC:

Ultra-performance liquid chromatography

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  1. Department of Exact and Earth Sciences, Federal University of São Paulo (UNIFESP), Diadema, SP, Brazil

    Aline Klassen

  2. Institute of Chemistry, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, SP, Brazil

    Andréa Tedesco Faccio, Gisele André Baptista Canuto, Pedro Luis Rocha da Cruz & Marina Franco Maggi Tavares

  3. Laboratory of Bioanalytics and Integrated Omics (LaBIOmics), Department of Analytical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), 6154, Campinas, SP, 13083-970, Brazil

    Henrique Caracho Ribeiro & Alessandra Sussulini

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Klassen, A. et al. (2017). Metabolomics: Definitions and Significance in Systems Biology. In: Sussulini, A. (eds) Metabolomics: From Fundamentals to Clinical Applications. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology(), vol 965. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47656-8_1

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