IMR Press / FBL / Volume 29 / Issue 8 / DOI: 10.31083/j.fbl2908306
Open Access Original Research
Aged Brain Metabolomics Study by Metabolic Profiling Analysis of Amino Acids, Organic Acids, and Fatty Acids in Cortex, Cerebellum, Hypothalamus, and Hippocampus of Rats
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Affiliation
1 College of Pharmacy, and Research Institute of Life and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Sunchon National University, 57922 Suncheon, Republic of Korea
2 Central R&D Center, B&Tech Co., Ltd., 58205 Naju, Republic of Korea
3 Department of Pharmacy, College of Pharmacy, Pusan National University, 46241 Busan, Republic of Korea
*Correspondence: hyjung@pusan.ac.kr (Hae Young Chung); paik815@scnu.ac.kr (Man-Jeong Paik)
These authors contributed equally.
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2024, 29(8), 306; https://doi.org/10.31083/j.fbl2908306
Submitted: 5 June 2024 | Revised: 24 July 2024 | Accepted: 31 July 2024 | Published: 22 August 2024
Copyright: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by IMR Press.
This is an open access article under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Abstract

Background: Aging is a progressive process characterized by weakness in brain function. Although metabolomics studies on the brain related with aging have been conducted, it is not yet fully understood. A systematic metabolomics study was performed to search for biomarkers and monitor altered metabolism in various brain tissues of the cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, and hippocampus of young (8 months old) and old rats (22 months old). Methods: Simultaneous profiling analysis of amino acids (AAs), organic acids (OAs), and fatty acids (FAs) in the brain tissues of young and old rats were performed by gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. Results: Under optimal conditions, AA, OA, and FA profiling methods showed good linearity (r 0.995) with limit of detection of 30 and 73.2 ng and limit of quantification of 90.1 and 219.5 ng, respectively. Repeatability varied from 0.4 to 10.4 and 0.8 to 14.8% relative standard deviation and accuracy varied from –11.3 to 10.3 and –12.8 to 14.1% relative error, respectively. In the profiling analysis, total 32, 43, 45, and 30 metabolites were determined in cortex, cerebellum, hypothalamus, and hippocampus, respectively. In statistical analysis, eight AAs (alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, threonine, serine, proline, and phenylalanine) in the cortex and four metabolites (alanine, phenylalanine, 3-hydoxypropionic acid, and eicosadienoic acid) in the cerebellum were significantly evaluated (Q-value <0.05, variable importance in projection scores 1.0). In all brain tissues, the score plots of orthogonal partial least square discriminant analysis were clearly separated between the young and old groups. Conclusions: Metabolomics results indicate that mechanistic targets of rapamycin complex 1, branched chain-amino acid, and energy metabolism are related to inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction in the brain during aging. Thus, these results may explain the characteristic metabolism of brain aging.

Keywords
aging
amino acid
organic acid
fatty acid
metabolic profiling analysis
rat brain tissues
gas chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry
Funding
2023R1A2C1003696/ National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF)
Figures
Fig. 1.
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