Unveiling the hidden impact: metabolomic changes in children undergoing VSD repair

We analyzed the perioperative metabolomic alterations in children undergoing ventricular septal defect (VSD) repair under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB), identified evidence of postoperative injury, and explored strategies to mitigate such injuries.

We conducted an untargeted metabolomic analysis of serum at three distinct time points (preoperative (Tp), immediate postoperative (T0), and 24 h postoperative (T24)) in eight children undergoing VSD repair under CPB. Subsequently, we identified the key enzymes associated with perioperative injury for molecular docking prediction studies.

We identified 623 metabolites in serum samples with VIP scores exceeding 1 in all three groups; 37 of these metabolites exhibited significant differences throughout the study phases. Three metabolic pathways-glycerophospholipid metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, and retrograde endogenous cannabinoid signaling recurred in various comparisons between the two groups. Molecular docking predictions confirmed that arginine-glycine amidinotransferase may possess binding sites for bosentan and AdipoRon.

The perioperative metabolic profiles in children undergoing VSD repair under CPB were significantly altered, presumably because of the inflammatory response and endothelial cell dysfunction induced by CPB. Molecular docking predictions suggested that bosentan and AdipoRon may be potent compounds that influence perioperative damage.