Evaluation of Urea Cycle Activity by Metabolic Flux Analysis Using Mass Spectrometry

Hepatocytes play an important role in maintaining homeostasis in living organisms by carrying out various metabolic functions. The urea cycle, one of the metabolic pathways taking place in hepatocytes, is an important metabolic pathway that converts toxic ammonia to nontoxic urea. Performing quantitative assessments of individual metabolite levels using a mass spectrometer is useful for assessing the metabolic state of the urea cycle in hepatocytes. In addition, metabolic flux analysis using stable isotopes and a mass spectrometer is a new technique for measuring the metabolic state. It enables conducting specific, objective, and quantitative measurement of the activated state of the target metabolic pathway regardless of external disturbing factors. This section describes the technical background and methodology of performing metabolic flux analysis of the urea cycle by mass spectrometry.