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  • Review Article
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Technology Insight: metabonomics in gastroenterology—basic principles and potential clinical applications

Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology & Hepatology volume 5, pages 332–343 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Metabonomics—the study of metabolic changes in an integrated biologic system—is an emerging field. This discipline joins the other 'omics' (genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics) to give rise to a comprehensive, systems-biology approach to the evaluation of holistic in vivo function. Metabonomics, especially when based on nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, has the potential to identify biomarkers and prognostic factors, enhance clinical diagnosis, and expand hypothesis generation. As a consequence, the use of metabonomics has been extensively explored in the past decade, and applied successfully to the study of human diseases, toxicology, microbes, nutrition, and plant biology. This Review introduces the basic principles of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and commonly used tools for multivariate data analysis, before considering the applications and future potential of metabonomics in basic and clinical research, with emphasis on applications in the field of gastroenterology.

Key Points

  • Metabonomics has become increasingly attractive, as genomics and proteomics only tells us what might happen, but metabonomics tells us what actually did happen

  • NMR spectroscopy has several advantages, because it is rapid, requires minimal or no sample preparation, is non-destructive of the samples, requires only small sample amounts, and often allows use of samples acquired in a noninvasive or minimally invasive manner; it has an unequalled reproducibility and stability, and is virtually the only technique available that can investigate the metabolic composition of intact tissue

  • NMR spectroscopy based metabonomics has the potential of becoming an extremely powerful platform in terms of biomarker identification, improving clinical diagnostic and prognostic information, and hypothesis generation

  • Metabonomics joins the other 'omics'—genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics—as sciences that collectively gives rise to a comprehensive, systems-biology approach to the evaluation of holistic in vivo function

  • Integration of the different 'omics' is a relatively new concept, especially in the field of gastroenterology, and further investigation into their possible applications is warranted

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Figure 1: The relationship between the different 'omics' and their interaction via defined biologic processes.
Figure 2: Analysis of classic NMR spectra is not a 'one peak, one compound' approach, but a potentially complex procedure.
Figure 3: Unit variance scaling and mean centering.
Figure 4: Principal component analysis.
Figure 5: Principal component analysis applied.
Figure 6: A geometric representation of partial least-squares (PLS) regression.

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Acknowledgements

This paper was supported by grants from the Danish Research Council, the Augustinus Foundation, Aase and Ejnar Danielsen's Foundation, Director Emil C Hertz and spouse Inger Hertz Foundation, and the Foundation of Graduate Engineer Frode V Nyegaard and spouse.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. JT Bjerrum is a Research Fellow and OH Nielsen is a Consultant Gastroenterologist and Associate Professor at the Unit of Gastroenterology, Medical Section, Herlev Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.,

    Jacob T Bjerrum & Ole H Nielsen

  2. YL Wang is a Professor at State Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance and Atomic and Molecular Physics, Wuhan Center for Magnetic Resonance, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, China.,

    Yulan L Wang

  3. J Olsen is an Associate Professor at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, The Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark.,

    Jørgen Olsen

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Bjerrum, J., Nielsen, O., Wang, Y. et al. Technology Insight: metabonomics in gastroenterology—basic principles and potential clinical applications. Nat Rev Gastroenterol Hepatol 5, 332–343 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpgasthep1125

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