In vivo metabolic flux profiling with stable isotopes discriminates sites and quantifies effects of mitochondrial dysfunction in C. elegans.

Mitochondrial respiratory chain (RC) disease diagnosis is complicated both by an absence of biomarkers that sufficiently divulge all cases and limited capacity to quantify adverse effects across intermediary metabolism. We applied high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry (MS) studies of stable-isotope based precursor–product relationships in the nematode, C. elegans, to interrogate in vivo differences in metabolic flux among distinct genetic models of primary RC defects and closely related metabolic disorders.