Clinical Metabolomics Identifies Blood Serum Branched Chain Amino Acids as Potential Predictive Biomarkers for Chronic Graft vs. Host Disease.

The allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation procedure-the only curative therapy for many types of hematological cancers-is increasing, and graft vs. host disease (GVHD) is the main cause of morbidity and mortality after transplantation. Currently, GVHD diagnosis is clinically performed. Whereas, biomarker panels have been developed for acute GVHD (aGVHD), there is a lack of information about the chronic form (cGVHD). Using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and gas chromatography coupled to time-of-flight (GC-TOF) mass spectrometry, this study prospectively evaluated the serum metabolome of 18 Brazilian patients who had undergone allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). We identified and quantified 63 metabolites and performed the metabolomic profile on day -10, day 0, day +10 and day +100, in reference to day of transplantation. Patients did not present aGVHD or cGVHD clinical symptoms at sampling times. From 18 patients analyzed, 6 developed cGVHD. The branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) leucine and isoleucine were reduced and the sulfur-containing metabolite (cystine) was increased at day +10 and day +100. The area under receiver operating characteristics (ROC) curves was higher than 0.79. BCAA findings were validated by liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in 49 North American patients at day +100; however, cystine findings were not statistically significant in this patient set. Our results highlight the importance of multi-temporal and multivariate biomarker panels for predicting and understanding cGVHD.

Fatty acid profile, and chemical composition of Longissimus muscle of bovine steers and bulls finished in pasture system.

The objective of this work was to evaluate the conjugated linoleic acid content (CLA), the fatty acid profile, and the chemical composition of the Longissimus muscle (LM) of steers and bulls finished in pasture systems. Fourteen 1/2 Nelore×1/2 Aberdeen Angus cattle were studied. The animals were slaughtered at approximately 20 months of age, with an approximate final liveweight of 480kg. Moisture, ash, fat, crude protein, cholesterol, and fatty acid contents of Longissimus muscle were determined. Steer muscle had a higher lipid content (3.38%) than that of bulls (1.71%). Total n-3 fatty acids were higher in bulls. The amounts of CLA in steer and bull fat were similar, but the CLA content in steer muscle was higher (47.99mg100g(-1) in LM) than that in bull muscle (23.24mg100g(-1) in LM).