Gas Chromatography/Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomic Profiling Reveals Alterations in Mouse Plasma and Liver in Response to Fava Beans

PLoS One. 2016 Mar 16;11(3):e0151103. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151103. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Favism is a life-threatening hemolytic anemia resulting from the intake of fava beans by susceptible individuals with low erythrocytic glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) activity. However, little is known about the metabolomic changes in plasma and liver after the intake of fava beans in G6PD normal and deficient states. In this study, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to analyze the plasma and liver metabolic alterations underlying the effects of fava beans in C3H- and G6PD-deficient (G6PDx) mice, and to find potential biomarkers and metabolic changes associated with favism. Our results showed that fava beans induced oxidative stress in both C3H and G6PDx mice. Significantly, metabolomic differences were observed in plasma and liver between the control and fava bean treated groups of both C3H and G6PDx mice. The levels of 7 and 21 metabolites in plasma showed significant differences between C3H-control (C3H-C)- and C3H fava beans-treated (C3H-FB) mice, and G6PDx-control (G6PDx-C)- and G6PDx fava beans-treated (G6PDx-FB) mice, respectively. Similarly, the levels of 7 and 25 metabolites in the liver showed significant differences between C3H and C3H-FB, and G6PDx and G6PDx-FB, respectively. The levels of oleic acid, linoleic acid, and creatinine were significantly increased in the plasma of both C3H-FB and G6PDx-FB mice. In the liver, more metabolic alterations were observed in G6PDx-FB mice than in C3H-FB mice, and were involved in a sugar, fatty acids, amino acids, cholesterol biosynthesis, the urea cycle, and the nucleotide metabolic pathway. These findings suggest that oleic acid, linoleic acid, and creatinine may be potential biomarkers of the response to fava beans in C3H and G6PDx mice and therefore that oleic acid and linoleic acid may be involved in oxidative stress induced by fava beans. This study demonstrates that G6PD activity in mice can affect their metabolic pathways in response to fava beans.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Blood*
  • Chromatography, Thin Layer
  • Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
  • Liver / metabolism*
  • Metabolomics*
  • Mice
  • Mice, Inbred C3H
  • Oxidative Stress
  • Vicia faba*

Grants and funding

The National Key Basic Research Program of China (2012CB526600) (WWC), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 30960171, No. 81260092) (WWC) and Natural Science Foundation of Hainan Province (No. 812195) (MX) had role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Shanghai Sensichip Infotech Co., Ltd. provided support in the form of salaries for author HZ, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific role of this author is articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section.