Assessment of health risk under exposure of airborne particulate matter in mouse by LC-MS based metabolomics

Abstract

In this study, liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry based metabolomics was performed on mouse model exposed to airborne particulate matter (PM). Exposure group mice were injected with PM by intratracheal instillation. Metabolites were extracted from the heart and the lung of exposure and control group mice. Partial least-squares discriminant analysis was conducted on the abundance of differentially expressed metabolites to examine whether exposure of PM caused difference in metabolite profiles between the two groups. Biological impact of PM exposure on mice was tracked by annotating metabolic pathways associated with differentially expressed metabolites. Common and unique biological implications between the two organs were also investigated, to evaluate total adverse effects on the cardiopulmonary system. This study suggested important metabolic changes resulting from PM exposure, which can be utilized to elucidate its toxicity mechanism.