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. 2016;12(10):159.
doi: 10.1007/s11306-016-1109-3. Epub 2016 Sep 15.

Does centrifugation matter? Centrifugal force and spinning time alter the plasma metabolome

Dorothea Lesche  1 , Roland Geyer  2 , Daniel Lienhard  2 , Christos T Nakas  3 , Gaëlle Diserens  4 , Peter Vermathen  5 , Alexander B Leichtle  2
Affiliations

Does centrifugation matter? Centrifugal force and spinning time alter the plasma metabolome

Dorothea Lesche et al. Metabolomics. 2016.

Abstract

Background: Centrifugation is an indispensable procedure for plasma sample preparation, but applied conditions can vary between labs.

Aim: Determine whether routinely used plasma centrifugation protocols (1500×g 10 min; 3000×g 5 min) influence non-targeted metabolomic analyses.

Methods: Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) data were evaluated with sparse partial least squares discriminant analyses and compared with cell count measurements.

Results: Besides significant differences in platelet count, we identified substantial alterations in NMR and HRMS data related to the different centrifugation protocols.

Conclusion: Already minor differences in plasma centrifugation can significantly influence metabolomic patterns and potentially bias metabolomics studies.

Keywords: Centrifugation; Metabolome; Plasma; Preanalytics; Relative centrifugal force; Spinning time.

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Conflict of interest statement

All authors declare that they have no conflict of interest directly or indirectly related to the research presented in this manuscript. Informed consent All participants provided written informed consent, the study is covered under ethics waiver #388-15 from the cantonal ethics committee of Bern.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
sPLS-DA plot of the individuals of both centrifugation groups (C1 1500×g, 10 min; C2 3000×g, 5 min) for the NMR data
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
sPLS-DA plot of the individuals of both centrifugation groups (C1 1500×g, 10 min; C2 3000×g, 5 min) for the UPLC-QTOF data
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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