Objective: To explore the differential metabolites in the serum of infants with iron deficiency anemia(IDA) and non iron deficiency anemia, and to explore the potential biomarkers.
Methods: Non-targeted metabolomics of 30 infants with iron deficiency anemia aged 6-11 months and 30 infants with non iron deficiency anemia aged 6-11 months were analyzed by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography with time of flight mass spectrometry using Acquity UPLC BEH C_(18) column(100 mm×2.1 mm, 1.8 μm). The differences of metabolites between the two groups were analyzed by principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares discriminant analysis(OPLS-DA). Differential metabolites were screened according to OPLS-DA variable importance projection(VIP) >1. The related metabolic pathways involved in the markers were analyzed based on the KEGG database.
Results: Differences in serum metabolic profiles between iron deficiency anemia group and non iron deficiency anemia group were observed. The 44 potential biomarkers were mainly lipids. Combined with pathway analysis, the metabolic pathways related to different metabolites included glycerophosphingolipid metabolism and sphingolipid metabolism.
Conclusion: There are differences in lipid metabolites between infants with non iron deficiency anemia and iron deficiency anemia, suggesting that the occurrence and progress of iron deficiency anemia are related to lipid metabolism.
Keywords: iron deficiency anemia; lipid; metabonomics; ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry.