Untargeted Metabolomic Approach to Study the Serum Metabolites in Women with Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

Abstract Background: Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a kind of common endocrine syndrome as well as metabolic disorder, which harms the reproductive system and the overall body metabolism of the patients. This study, we aimed to investigate the difference of serum metabolic profiles of the patients with PCOS compared to the healthy controls.Material and methods: a total of 62 study subjects including 31 PCOS patients and 31 matched healthy female controls were recruited, the clinical characteristics data were recorded at the time of recruitment, the laboratory biochemical data were detected. Then, we utilized metabolomics approach by UPLC-HRMS technology to study the metabolic changes between PCOS and controls.Results: The metabolomics analysis showed that there were 68 were downregulated and 78 were upregulated metabolites in PCOS patients serum compared to the controls. These metabolites mainly belong to Triacylglycerols, Glycerophosphocholines, Acylcarnitines, Diacylglycerols, Peptides, Amino acids, Glycerophosphoethanolamines and fatty acid. Pathway analysis showed that these metabolites were enriched in pathways including Glycerophospholipid metabolism, Fatty acid degradation, Fatty acid biosynthesis, Ether lipid metabolism etc. Diagnosis value assessment by ROC analysis showed that the changed metabolites including Leu-Ala/Ile-Ala, 3-(4-Hydroxyphenyl) propionic acid, Ile-Val/Leu-Val, Gly-Val/Val-Gly, aspartic acid, DG(34:2)_DG(16:0/18:2), DG(34:1)_DG(16:0/18:1), Phe-Trp, DG(36:1)_DG(18:0/18:1), Leu-Leu/Leu-Ile had higher AUC values, indicated significant role in PCOS.Conclusion: The present study characterized the difference of metabolic and related pathway profiles in PCOS patients, this finding hope to provide potential metabolic marker for the prognosis and diagnosis of this disease.