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Updated: Jan 26, 2026

A Strategy for Sensitive, Large Scale Quantitative Metabolomics
Published on: May 27, 2014
Large-scale plasma metabolome analysis reveals alterations in HDL metabolism in migraine
Gerrit L J Onderwater1, Lannie Ligthart1, Mariska Bot1
1From the Departments of Neurology (G.L.J.O., J.A.P., D.A.K., R.Z., I.d.B., M.D.F., G.M.T., A.M.J.M.v.d.M.), Human Genetics (A.D., L.S.V., P.A.C.'tH., A.M.J.M.v.d.M.), Molecular Epidemiology (M.B., P.E.S.), Radiology (D.A.K.), and Medical Statistics (J.J.G.), Leiden University Medical Centre; Department of Biological Psychology (L.L., R.P., D.I.B.), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam; Amsterdam Public Health Institute (L.L.); Amsterdam Neuroscience and Amsterdam Public Health (M.B., C.S.T., Y.M., D.I.B., B.W.P.); Department of Psychiatry (M.B., C.S.T., Y.M., B.W.P.), VU University Medical Centre/GGZ inGeest, Amsterdam; Departments of Epidemiology (A.D., J.L., K.-x.W., N.A., M.A.I., C.M.v.D.) and Neurology (M.A.I.), Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam; Departments of Genetics (J.F., L.F., C.W.) and Pediatrics (J.F.), University Medical Centre Groningen; Department of Internal Medicine (C.J.H.v.d.K., F.H.M.V., M.M.J.v.G., M.T.S., C.D.A.S.) and Heart and Vascular Center (M.T.S.), Maastricht University Medical Centre; CARIM School for Cardiovascular Diseases (C.J.H.v.d.K., M.M.J.v.G., I.C.W.A., M.T.S., P.C.D., C.D.A.S.), Department of Epidemiology (I.C.W.A.), MaCSBio Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology (I.C.W.A.), and Department of Epidemiology (P.C.D.), Maastricht University; Department of Radiology (M.A.I.), Erasmus MC University Medical Centre, Rotterdam; Leiden Academic Centre in Drug Research, Faculty Science (C.M.v.D.), Leiden University; and Centre for Molecular and Biomolecular Informatics (P.A.C.'tH.), Radboud University Medical Centre Nijmegen, Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences, Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
Objective:
To identify a plasma metabolomic biomarker signature for migraine.
Methods:
Plasma samples from 8 Dutch cohorts (n = 10,153: 2,800 migraine patients and 7,353 controls) were profiled on a 1H-NMR-based metabolomics platform, to quantify 146 individual metabolites (e.g., lipids, fatty acids, and lipoproteins) and 79 metabolite ratios. Metabolite measures associated with migraine were obtained after single-metabolite logistic regression combined with a random-effects meta-analysis performed in a nonstratified and sex-stratified manner. Next, a global test analysis was performed to identify sets of related metabolites associated with migraine. The Holm procedure was applied to control the family-wise error rate at 5% in single-metabolite and global test analyses.
Results:
Decreases in the level of apolipoprotein A1 (β -0.10; 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.16, -0.05; adjusted p = 0.029) and free cholesterol to total lipid ratio present in small high-density lipoprotein subspecies (HDL) (β -0.10; 95% CI -0.15, -0.05; adjusted p = 0.029) were associated with migraine status. In addition, only in male participants, a decreased level of omega-3 fatty acids (β -0.24; 95% CI -0.36, -0.12; adjusted p = 0.033) was associated with migraine. Global test analysis further supported that HDL traits (but not other lipoproteins) were associated with migraine status.
Conclusions:
Metabolic profiling of plasma yielded alterations in HDL metabolism in migraine patients and decreased omega-3 fatty acids only in male migraineurs.
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