Related Experiment Video
Updated: Dec 25, 2025
Untargeted Metabolomics from Biological Sources Using Ultraperformance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry UPLC-HRMS
Published on: May 20, 2013
An LC-QToF MS based method for untargeted metabolomics of human fecal samples
Ken Cheng1, Carl Brunius2, Rikard Fristedt2
1Division of Food and Nutrition Science, Department of Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University of Technology, 412 96, Gothenburg, Sweden. cheng-ken@live.cn.
Introduction:
Consensus in sample preparation for untargeted human fecal metabolomics is lacking.
Objectives:
To obtain sample preparation with broad metabolite coverage for high-throughput LC-MS.
Methods:
Extraction solvent, solvent ratio and fresh frozen-vs-lyophilized samples were evaluated by metabolite feature quality.
Results:
Methanol at 5 mL per g wet feces provided a wide metabolite coverage with optimal balance between signal intensity and saturation for both fresh frozen and lyophilized samples. Lyophilization did not affect SCFA and is recommended because of convenience in normalizing to dry matter.
Conclusion:
The suggested sample preparation is simple, efficient and suitable for large-scale human fecal metabolomics.
