Metabolic shifts induced by human H460 cells in tumor-bearing mice

Tumor markers are most popularly used in diagnosis of various cancers clinically. However, the confounding factors of individual background diversities, such as genetics, food preferences, living styles, physical exercises, etc., greatly challenge the identification of tumor markers. Study of the metabolic impact of inoculated tumors on model animals can facilitate the identification of metabolomic markers relevant to tumor insult. In this study, serum metabolites from nude mice (n = 14) inoculated with human H460 cells (human nonsmall cell lung carcinoma) were profiled using gas chromatography time-of-flight mass spectrometry. The mice with inoculated tumors showed an obviously different metabolic pattern from the control; identification of the discriminatory metabolites suggested the metabolic perturbation of free fatty acids, amino acids, glycolysis and tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle turnover. The significantly decreased TCA intermediates, free fatty acids, 3-hydroxybutyric acid and fluctuating amino acids (t-test, p < 0.05) in serum of tumor-bearing mice characterized the metabolic impact of local inoculated H460 tumor cells on the whole system. This indicates that they are candidate metabolomic markers for translational study of lung cancer, clinically.