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

Dorothea Lesche; Roland Geyer; Daniel Lienhard; Christos T Nakas; Gaëlle Diserens; Peter Vermathen; Alexander B Leichtle

doi:10.1007/s11306-016-1109-3

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

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

Authors

Dorothea Lesche¹, Roland Geyer², Daniel Lienhard², Christos T Nakas³, Gaëlle Diserens⁴, Peter Vermathen⁵, Alexander B Leichtle²

Affiliations

¹ University Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, INO F, 3010 Bern, Switzerland ; Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
² University Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, INO F, 3010 Bern, Switzerland.
³ University Institute of Clinical Chemistry, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, INO F, 3010 Bern, Switzerland ; Laboratory of Biometry, University of Thessaly, Volos, Greece.
⁴ Departments of Clinical Research and Radiology (AMSM), Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland ; Graduate School for Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
⁵ Departments of Clinical Research and Radiology (AMSM), Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.

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.