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World J Gastroenterol. Jan 7, 2016; 22(1): 417-426
Published online Jan 7, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i1.417
Nuclear magnetic resonance based metabolomics and liver diseases: Recent advances and future clinical applications
Roland Amathieu, Mohamed Nawfal Triba, Corentine Goossens, Nadia Bouchemal, Pierre Nahon, Philippe Savarin, Laurence Le Moyec
Roland Amathieu, Assitance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Réanimation polyvalente, Hôpital Universitaire Jean Verdier, 93140 Bondy, France
Roland Amathieu, Mohamed Nawfal Triba, Corentine Goossens, Nadia Bouchemal, Philippe Savarin, Université Paris 13, Sorbonne Paris Cité, CSPBAT, UMR 7244, CNRS, 93000 Bobigny, France
Pierre Nahon, Assitance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Service d’Hépatologie, GHU PSSD, Hôpital Jean Verdier, 93140 Bondy, France
Pierre Nahon, INSERM U1162, Génomique Fonctionnelle des Tumeurs solides, Université Paris 5, 75010 Paris, France
Laurence Le Moyec, Université d’Evry Val d’Essonne, UBIAE, INSERM U902, 91025 Evry, France
Author contributions: All authors contributed to this manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict of interest associated with any of the senior author or other coauthors contributed their efforts in this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Roland Amathieu, MD, PhD, Assitance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Réanimation polyvalente, Hôpital Universitaire Jean Verdier, Allée du 14 Juillet, Bondy, 93140 Bondy, France. roland.amathieu@aphp.fr
Telephone: +33-1-48026680 Fax: +33-1-48026675
Received: May 28, 2015
Peer-review started: May 31, 2015
First decision: July 14, 2015
Revised: September 26, 2015
Accepted: December 1, 2015
Article in press: December 1, 2015
Published online: January 7, 2016
Abstract

Metabolomics is defined as the quantitative measurement of the dynamic multiparametric metabolic response of living systems to pathophysiological stimuli or genetic modification. It is an “omics” technique that is situated downstream of genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics. Metabolomics is recognized as a promising technique in the field of systems biology for the evaluation of global metabolic changes. During the last decade, metabolomics approaches have become widely used in the study of liver diseases for the detection of early biomarkers and altered metabolic pathways. It is a powerful technique to improve our pathophysiological knowledge of various liver diseases. It can be a useful tool to help clinicians in the diagnostic process especially to distinguish malignant and non-malignant liver disease as well as to determine the etiology or severity of the liver disease. It can also assess therapeutic response or predict drug induced liver injury. Nevertheless, the usefulness of metabolomics is often not understood by clinicians, especially the concept of metabolomics profiling or fingerprinting. In the present work, after a concise description of the different techniques and processes used in metabolomics, we will review the main research on this subject by focusing specifically on in vitro proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy based metabolomics approaches in human studies. We will first consider the clinical point of view enlighten physicians on this new approach and emphasis its future use in clinical “routine”.

Keywords: Metabolomics, In vitro nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, Liver diseases, Cirrhosis

Core tip: Metabolomics is a powerful technique to improve our pathophysiological knowledge of various liver diseases, to help clinicians in the diagnostic process as well as in the prognosis or therapeutic response assessment. Nevertheless, the usefulness of metabolomics is often not understood by clinicians. In the present work, after a concise description of the different techniques and processes used in metabolomics, we will review the main research on this subject by focusing specifically on proton nuclear magnetic resonance based metabolomics in human studies. Three major themes will be enlightened: acute liver disease, chronic liver disease and liver transplantation.