Metabolite extraction from cells cultured in vitro enables the comprehensive measurement of intracellular metabolites. These extracts can be analyzed using techniques such as liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS). This chapter describes in detail a method for metabolite extraction from cultured adherent mammalian cells to collect both polar and nonpolar intracellular metabolites. This chapter also describes experimental design considerations for performing stable isotope labeling experiments, and the use of chemical derivatization to increase the number of compounds that can be detected using one chromatography method.
Keywords: Adherent cell metabolism; Amino acid chemical derivatization; Isotope labeling; LC-MS; Metabolite extraction; Metabolomics.