Development and validation of a UPLC-MS/MS assay for serum choline and phosphocholine with a pilot application to obesity

IF 2.5 3区医学 Q2 BIOCHEMICAL RESEARCH METHODS

Journal of Chromatography B Pub Date : 2026-01-15 Epub Date: 2025-11-30 DOI:10.1016/j.jchromb.2025.124870

Yingting Wu , Jiaqi Xin , Haiyan Cao , Yongsheng Zhao , Mengxi Jiang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

The rising global burden of obesity underscores the need to better characterize metabolic alterations associated with this condition. Choline (Cho) and its derivative phosphocholine (ChoP) are key intermediates in phospholipid metabolism, yet their relationships with obesity remain unclear. In this study, we established and validated a UPLC-MS/MS method for quantifying serum Cho and ChoP, and investigated their associations with obesity and fasting glucose in a pilot human cohort. Serum samples from 62 participants (obese vs. nonobese) were analyzed. The primary analysis compared metabolite levels between groups, and key secondary analyses included Pearson correlations with fasting glucose and receiver operating characteristic (ROC)-based discrimination; two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) was conducted using external GWAS summary statistics. Obese individuals had lower ChoP levels and ChoP/Cho ratios. ChoP and the ChoP/Cho ratio were inversely associated, and Cho was positively associated, with fasting glucose. ChoP showed modest discriminative ability for obesity, and MR suggested that higher ChoP levels may be related to a lower risk of obesity. Overall, we validated a UPLC-MS/MS assay for serum Cho and ChoP, and our findings indicate that ChoP and the ChoP/Cho ratio are linked to obesity and glucose status.

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开发和验证UPLC-MS/MS测定血清胆碱和磷脂胆碱的方法，并试点应用于肥胖。

全球肥胖负担的增加强调了更好地描述与肥胖相关的代谢变化的必要性。胆碱（Cho）及其衍生物磷脂胆碱（ChoP）是磷脂代谢的关键中间体，但它们与肥胖的关系尚不清楚。在这项研究中，我们建立并验证了一种UPLC-MS/MS定量血清Cho和ChoP的方法，并研究了它们与肥胖和空腹血糖的关系。分析了62名参与者（肥胖与非肥胖）的血清样本。主要分析比较各组之间的代谢物水平，关键的次要分析包括与空腹血糖的Pearson相关性和基于受试者工作特征（ROC）的区分；采用外部GWAS汇总统计进行双样本孟德尔随机化（MR）。肥胖个体的ChoP水平和ChoP/Cho比值较低。ChoP和ChoP/Cho比值与空腹血糖呈负相关，Cho呈正相关。ChoP对肥胖表现出适度的区分能力，MR表明较高的ChoP水平可能与较低的肥胖风险有关。总之，我们验证了血清Cho和ChoP的UPLC-MS/MS分析，我们的研究结果表明，ChoP和ChoP/Cho比值与肥胖和血糖状态有关。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Chromatography B 医学-分析化学

CiteScore

5.60

自引率

3.30%

发文量

306

审稿时长

44 days

期刊介绍： The Journal of Chromatography B publishes papers on developments in separation science relevant to biology and biomedical research including both fundamental advances and applications. Analytical techniques which may be considered include the various facets of chromatography, electrophoresis and related methods, affinity and immunoaffinity-based methodologies, hyphenated and other multi-dimensional techniques, and microanalytical approaches. The journal also considers articles reporting developments in sample preparation, detection techniques including mass spectrometry, and data handling and analysis. Developments related to preparative separations for the isolation and purification of components of biological systems may be published, including chromatographic and electrophoretic methods, affinity separations, field flow fractionation and other preparative approaches. Applications to the analysis of biological systems and samples will be considered when the analytical science contains a significant element of novelty, e.g. a new approach to the separation of a compound, novel combination of analytical techniques, or significantly improved analytical performance.