The HTU offers to the research community a Metabolomics Platform including mass spectrometry and cromatography equipment. These techniques, combined with others as the MRI, allow to obtain quantitative and qualitative data of the metabolites and/or compounds that are found in biological substrates as serum, plasma, urine, cell tissues or cell cultures.

Services:

• Determination and quantification of compounds in biological substrates (serum, urine, plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, cell tissues and cultures)

Assistance with experimental design, implementation of new protocols and help with data analysis and interpretation are also available.

Applications:

The chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques provide with high sensibility compared to MRI (detection limit of femtomols) and allow to detect about 4000 different substances, of which about 150 can be detected simultaneously in the same sample. Some examples of application are:

• Determination of vitamines (i.e. D2 and D3) and phytoestrogens in serum
• Determination of intermediate and final metabolites of different biological pathways
• Pharmacokinetic studies and determination of drugs in biological fluids and tissues
• Determination of aminoacids in urine, serum and cerebrospinal fluid

Equipment:

1. TempoTM nano LC system coupled to a MS/MS spectrometer 4000QTrap (Ab Sciex).
2. Waters ACQUITY Ultra Performance LC coupled to a MS/MS spectrometer Xevo TQ (Waters). This station is also equiped with two aditional detectors: ultraviolet/visible and fluorescence