Sex Hormone Metabolism and Threatened Abortion.

BACKGROUND The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in sex hormone metabolism in patients with threatened miscarriage. MATERIAL AND METHODS We recruited 73 women in early pregnancy (6-8 weeks of gestation) and divided them into the following 2 groups based on whether they had vaginal bleeding: group A (n=34), the threatened abortion group; and group B (n=39), the normal pregnancy group. Human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG), estradiol (E2), progesterone (P4), and testosterone (T) serum levels were tested and sex hormone metabolites in the urine were detected using gas chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry (GC-MS/MS).

A liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry method for determination of 25-hydroxy vitamin D2 and 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 in dried blood spots: a potential adjunct to diabetes and cardiometabolic risk screening.

Background: Now emerging as an important risk factor for type 1 diabetes, vitamin D deficiency is also associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes and has been identified as a potential cardiometabolic risk factor. A simple, accurate screening test for 25-hydroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D] deficiency is needed. We developed a liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry assay for 25-hydroxy vitamin D(2) [25(OH)D(2)] and 25-hydroxy vitamin D(3) [25(OH)D(3)] in dried blood spots.

Deamidation alters the structure and decreases the stability of human lens betaA3-crystallin.

According to the World Health Organization, cataracts account for half of the blindness in the world, with the majority occurring in developing countries. A cataract is a clouding of the lens of the eye due to light scattering of precipitated lens proteins or aberrant cellular debris. The major proteins in the lens are crystallins, and they are extensively deamidated during aging and cataracts.

Solvent-dependent metabolite distribution, clustering, and protein extraction for serum profiling with mass spectrometry.

The aim of metabolite profiling is to monitor all metabolites within a biological sample for applications in basic biochemical research as well as pharmacokinetic studies and biomarker discovery. Here, novel data analysis software, XCMS, was used to monitor all metabolite features detected from an array of serum extraction methods, with application to metabolite profiling using electrospray liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (ESI-LC/MS). The XCMS software enabled the comparison of methods with regard to reproducibility, the number and type of metabolite features detected, and the similarity of these features between different extraction methods.

METLIN: a metabolite mass spectral database.

Endogenous metabolites have gained increasing interest over the past 5 years largely for their implications in diagnostic and pharmaceutical biomarker discovery. METLIN (http://metlin.scripps.