Evaluation of Dried Blood Spots as Sample Matrix for Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry Based Metabolomic Profiling

Abstract

We propose using dried blood spots (DBS) as sample matrix for gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) based metabolomic profiling for the benefits of higher sample stability, more convenient sample acquisition with DBS, higher analyte separation power, and more readily biomarker identification with GC/MS. To establish this proposition, the metabolomic profiles generated from DBS were compared with that obtained from the conventional whole blood and plasma matrixes and also with dried plasma spots (DPS) as another covariate control. Our findings indicated that whole blood produced the most number of detectable markers (866), whereas DPS yielded the least number (614). DBS and plasma matrix, on the other hand, produced the most similar numbers of detectable (695 vs 749) and identifiable markers (137 vs 147, matching with Fiehn library). From the analysis of the DBS and plasma metabolomic profiles, it was concluded that when l-lysine 2, iminodiacetic acid 2, dl-threo-beta-hydroxyaspartic acid, citric acid, or adenosine-5-monophosphate 2 are not involved as markers, DBS could be a suitable substitute for plasma for metabolomic profiling.