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A Fast and Accurate Way to Determine Short Chain Fatty Acids in Human Serum by GC–MS and Their Distribution in Children with Digestive Diseases

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Abstract

Short-Chain Fatty Acids (SCFAs) represent the largest group of metabolic nutrients produced by gut microbiota, and can be considered potential biomarkers for digestive tract diseases. A fast, cost-effective, and reproducible analytical method for the analysis of SCFAs is highly required. This work developed a one-step extraction of 14 SCFAs using a mixture of ethanol and n-hexane in human serum samples by GC–MS without derivatization. The recoveries of the 14 SCFAs ranged from 62.4% to 129.2% in human serum samples. The LODs and LOQs of the 14 SCFAs were 0.12–0.48 mg/L and 0.40–1.61 mg/L, respectively. The application of this method was carried out by comparing SCFAs in serum samples from children with health and digestive tract diseases, and the results demonstrated that SCFAs in the serum of children with digestive disorders were significantly higher than those of healthy children, implying that digestive tract diseases affect gut microbiota and their metabolisms.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81803214). We express our thanks to Prof. Bing Shao and Prof. Jing Zhang from Beijing CDC providing the serum samples of healthy children.

Funding

This study was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number: No. 81803214).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Nutrition and Development, Beijing Pediatric Research Institute, Beijing Children’s Hospital, Capital Medical University, National Center for Children’s Health, Beijing, 100045, People’s Republic of China

    Rui Wang, Chaonan Fan, Xiuqin Fan, Yuanyuan Wang, Ping Li, Tiantian Tang, Hongyang Yao, Si Chen & Kemin Qi

  2. China National Center for Food Safety Risk Assessment, Beijing, 100021, People’s Republic of China

    Yunfeng Zhao & Dawei Chen

  3. Key Laboratory of Food Safety Risk Assessment, Ministry of Health, Beijing, 100021, People’s Republic of China

    Yunfeng Zhao & Dawei Chen

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  1. Rui Wang
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  2. Chaonan Fan
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  3. Xiuqin Fan
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  10. Dawei Chen
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Correspondence to Dawei Chen or Kemin Qi.

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All authors have been informed of the full content and approved the publication of this manuscript, and all authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in the study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of Beijing Children’s Hospital and Beijing CDC research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards (case number: 2016-10).

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Wang, R., Fan, C., Fan, X. et al. A Fast and Accurate Way to Determine Short Chain Fatty Acids in Human Serum by GC–MS and Their Distribution in Children with Digestive Diseases. Chromatographia 83, 273–286 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-019-03831-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10337-019-03831-9

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