One of the primary mechanisms through which a cell exerts control over its metabolic state is by modulating expression levels of its enzyme-coding genes. However, the changes at the level of enzyme expression allow only indirect control over metabolite levels, for two main reasons. First, at the level of individual reactions, metabolite levels are non-linearly dependent on enzyme abundances as ...

In the present study the microdialysis technique was evaluated in an isolated autoperfused dog fat pad. Concentrations of glucose, lactate, and glycerol were measured in interstitial fluid by microdialysis and simultaneously in arterial and adipose venous plasma. Adipose tissue blood flow was measured by both133Xe washout and timed weighing of venous blood. Metabolite concentrations in adipose ...

A novel framework for automated elucidation of metabolite structures in liquid chromatography-mass spectrometer metabolome data was constructed by integrating databases. High-resolution tandem mass spectra data automatically acquired from each metabolite signal were used for database searches. Three distinct databases, KNApSAcK, ReSpect, and the PRIMe standard compound database, were employed f...

Simvastatin hydroxy acid (SVA), the pharmacologically active form of simvastatin (SV), is a potent inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-coenzyme A reductase and is formed on hydrolysis of the orally administered SV. In this article, we report the structural characterization of two new dihydroxy glutathione adducts and a trihydroxy derivative of SVA, all found in rat bile. Metabolite I ...

Absolute metabolite concentrations are critical to a quantitative understanding of cellular metabolism, as concentrations impact both the free energies and rates of metabolic reactions. Here we use LC-MS/MS to quantify more than 100 metabolite concentrations in aerobic, exponentially growing Escherichia coli with glucose, glycerol or acetate as the carbon source. The total observed intracellula...

Simvastatin hydroxy acid (SVA), the pharmacologically active form of simvastatin (SV), is a potent inhibitor of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-coenzyme A reductase and is formed on hydrolysis of the orally administered SV. In this article, we report the structural characterization of two new dihydroxy glutathione adducts and a trihydroxy derivative of SVA, all found in rat bile. Metabolite I ...

What is the relationship between enzymes and metabolites, the two major constituents of metabolic networks? We propose three alternative relationships between enzyme capacity and metabolite concentration alterations based on a Michaelis-Menten kinetic; that is enzyme capacities, metabolite concentrations, or both could limit the metabolic reaction rates. These relationships imply different corr...

Steady-state metabolite concentrations in a microorganism typically span several orders of magnitude. The underlying principles governing these concentrations remain poorly understood. Here, we hypothesize that observed variation can be explained in terms of a compromise between factors that favor minimizing metabolite pool sizes (e.g. limited solvent capacity) and the need to effectively utili...

Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS)-based untargeted metabolomics studies require high-quality spectral libraries for reliable metabolite identification. We have constructed EMBL-MCF (E...

NMR measurements for metabolic characterization of biological samples like cells, biopsies or plasma, may take several hours for advanced methods. Preanalytical issues, such as sample preparation and stability over the measurement time, may have a high impact on metabolite content, and potentially lead to misinterpretation. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate by 1H HR-MAS NMR the...