[Special Feature] Tracing Metabolic Flux in Basic and Clinical Applications
All constituents of living organisms (e.g., DNAs, RNAs, proteins, lipids, lactate, other metabolites) are in a constant state of turnover at varying rates to achieve overall “dynamic” homeostasis. This dynamic nature of metabolism of biomolecules in fully assembled living organisms cannot be accurately revealed by the measurements of static, snapshot information (“statomics”) on metabolisms such as transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics, and cellular signaling cascades, which often failed to reflect actual metabolic status. Combined approaches of fluxomics and “statomics” in vivo can provide an in-depth dynamic assessment of metabolic alterations, as well as simultaneous explorations of the molecular basis for the observed kinetic responses that enables a better understanding of the metabolic status of living organism and thus leading to discovery and development of effective therapeutics. In this Special Features, the reviews are written by experts in the field of tracer methodology or fluxomics that reveals the dynamic status of metabolism in vivo and deal with the basic principles and applications of the methodologies to various metabolic research fields (e.g., protein, lipid, lactate, and other nutrient metabolism in relation to normal and pathophysiology).
