Cited by 565Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry StudiesMass Spectrometry Techniques and ApplicationsNutrition, Genetics, and Disease

Mass-spectrometry-based metabolomics: limitations and recommendations for future progress with particular focus on nutrition research

Open access
Scalbert, Augustin, Brennan, Lorraine, Fiehn, Oliver, Hankemeier, Thomas, Kristal, Bruce S., van Ommen, Ben, Pujos-Guillot, Estelle, Verheij, Elwin +2 more·2009·Metabolomics

Abstract

Mass spectrometry (MS) techniques, because of their sensitivity and selectivity, have become methods of choice to characterize the human metabolome and MS-based metabolomics is increasingly used to characterize the complex metabolic effects of nutrients or foods. However progress is still hampered by many unsolved problems and most notably the lack of well established and standardized methods or procedures, and the difficulties still met in the identification of the metabolites influenced by a given nutritional intervention. The purpose of this paper is to review the main obstacles limiting progress and to make recommendations to overcome them. Propositions are made to improve the mode of collection and preparation of biological samples, the coverage and quality of mass spectrometry analyses, the extraction and exploitation of the raw data, the identification of the metabolites and the biological interpretation of the results.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1007/s11306-009-0168-0

Cites

159 of 159 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Untargeted metabolomics-based methods are time-consuming and require complex sample preparation steps, including extraction, purification, and sometimes derivatization or modification of metabolites.

    “Although these methods have significant advantages for the identification of marker compounds, these techniques are time-consuming, and complex sample preparation steps are needed, including extraction, purification of samples, and in some instances, the derivatization/modification of metabolites [13].”

    From Rapid metabolic fingerprinting with the aid of chemometric models to identify authenticity of natural medicines: Turmeric, Ocimum, and Withania somnifera study (2023) · cites this paper as [13]

    The Sampling strategy for metabolomics section (page unavailable) describes complex extraction and necessary protein removal for blood samples; the Mass spectrometry for metabolomics section (page unavailable) describes derivatization for some GC–MS and RPLC–MS analyses. The paper does not establish that untargeted methods generally require purification or are time-consuming: its explicit time estimate concerns supervised data processing, not sample preparation, and it also describes LC–MS as allowing fast analysis. (LLM, conf=0.86)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
  • NMR is robust, nondestructive, and quantitative but has relatively low sensitivity, limiting its coverage of the food metabolome to predominant nutrients, sugars, and microbial metabolites at millimolar to micromolar concentrations.

    “Briefly, NMR is robust, nondestructive, and quantitative but has a relatively low sensitivity, which narrows its coverage of the food metabolome to predominant nutrients, sugars, and microbial metabolites present at millimolar to micromolar concentrations.”

    From The food metabolome: a window over dietary exposure (2014) · cites this paper as [112]

  • Several training workshops on metabolomics and nutrition were supported by the Nutrigenomics Organization.

    “Several training workshops on metabolomics and nutrition were supported by the Nutrigenomics Organization (112).”

    From The food metabolome: a window over dietary exposure (2014) · cites this paper as [112]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Milbury, P. E. (1997). CEAS generation of large multiparameter databases for determining categorical process involvement of biomolecules. In Coulometric array detectors for HPLC (pp. 125–141). VSP International Science Publication.
  2. Vogels J Tas AC Venekamp J VanderGreef J Partial linear fit: A new NMR spectroscopy preprocessing tool for pattern recognition applications Journal of Chemometrics 1996 10 425 438

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Scalbert, A., Brennan, L., Fiehn, O., Hankemeier, T., Kristal, B. S., van Ommen, B., Pujos-Guillot, E., Verheij, E., Wishart, D., & Wopereis, S.
Affiliations
  • Unité de Nutrition Humaine (FR)
  • University College Dublin (IE)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
  • Leiden University (NL)
  • Brigham and Women's Hospital (US)
  • University of Alberta (CA)
Corresponding author
Scalbert, Augustin
Venue
Metabolomics
Published
2009-06-12
Volume
5
Issue
4
Pages
435-458
ISSN
  • 1573-3882 (ISSN-L)
  • 1573-3890
OpenAlex
W2142923621
Cited by
565
References
159
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 38 · 2021: 30 · 2020: 33 · 2019: 42 · 2018: 37 · 2017: 37 · 2016: 44 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 38 · 2013: 54 · 2012: 43
FWCI
13.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by-nc
Locations
  • Metabolomics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • HAL (submittedVersion)
  • TNO Repository (submittedVersion)
  • Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute on Aging (R01AG025872, R01AG028996)
  • National Cancer Institute (R01CA102536)
  • National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (P30DK040561)
  • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (U01ES016048)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
  • Physical Sciences › Chemistry › Spectroscopy › Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Nutrition, Genetics, and Disease
Keywords
mass spectrometry-based metabolomics, human metabolome, dietary intervention, metabolite identification, sample collection and preparation, metabolite extraction, data analysis, method standardization

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review