September 2013 | Volume 8 | Issue 9 | e73076 | Souhaila Bouatra, Farid Aziat, Rupasri Mandal, An Chi Guo, Michael R. Wilson, Craig Knox, Trent C. Bjorndahl, Ramanarayan Krishnamurthy, Fozia Saleem, Philip Liu, Zerihun T. Dame, Jenna Poelzer, Jessica Huynh, Faizah S. Yallow, Nick Psychogios, Edison Dong, Ralf Bogumil, Cornelia Roehring, David S. Wishart
The article presents a comprehensive, quantitative characterization of human urine metabolome using multiple analytical platforms. The study involved both literature mining and experimental assessments, including NMR spectroscopy, GC-MS, DFI/LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, and HPLC. A total of 445 unique metabolites were identified, and 378 were quantified. The multi-platform approach identified several previously unknown urine metabolites and enhanced the coverage of the metabolome. The literature review identified an additional 2206 urinary compounds, which were used to guide the experimental studies. The results are compiled in the Urine Metabolome Database (UMDB), which contains detailed information on 2651 confirmed human urine metabolite species, their structures, concentrations, and disease associations. The database is freely available and accessible online at http://www.urinemetabolome.ca. The study highlights the chemical complexity of urine and the complementary strengths of different analytical platforms in metabolomics.The article presents a comprehensive, quantitative characterization of human urine metabolome using multiple analytical platforms. The study involved both literature mining and experimental assessments, including NMR spectroscopy, GC-MS, DFI/LC-MS/MS, ICP-MS, and HPLC. A total of 445 unique metabolites were identified, and 378 were quantified. The multi-platform approach identified several previously unknown urine metabolites and enhanced the coverage of the metabolome. The literature review identified an additional 2206 urinary compounds, which were used to guide the experimental studies. The results are compiled in the Urine Metabolome Database (UMDB), which contains detailed information on 2651 confirmed human urine metabolite species, their structures, concentrations, and disease associations. The database is freely available and accessible online at http://www.urinemetabolome.ca. The study highlights the chemical complexity of urine and the complementary strengths of different analytical platforms in metabolomics.