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Updated: Aug 13, 2025

A Method for Measuring Metabolism in Sorted Subpopulations of Complex Cell Communities Using Stable Isotope Tracing
Published on: February 4, 2017
Metabolite profiling and identification in living cells by coupling stable isotope tracing and induced electrospray
Zhuanghao Hou1, Liujuan Zhan1, Kaiming Cao2
1Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital of USTC, University of Science and Technology of China, 230001, Hefei, China; School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China.
Abstract:
Direct observation of metabolites in living cells by mass spectrometry offers a bright future for biological studies but also suffers a severe challenge to untargeted peak assignment to tentative metabolite candidates. In this study, we developed a method combining stable isotope tracing and induced electrospray mass spectrometry for living-cells metabolite measurement and identification. By using 13C6-glucose and ammonium chloride-15N as the sole carbon and nitrogen sources for cell culture, Escherichia coli synthesized metabolites with 15N and 13C elements. Tracing the number of carbon and nitrogen atoms could offer a complementary dimension for candidate peak searching. As a result, the identification confidence of metabolites achieved a universal improvement based on carbon/nitrogen labelling and filtration.
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