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Stable isotope‐assisted metabolomics in cancer research
Author(s) -
Lane Andrew N.,
Fan Teresa W.M.,
Higashi Richard M.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
iubmb life
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.132
H-Index - 113
eISSN - 1521-6551
pISSN - 1521-6543
DOI - 10.1002/iub.17
Subject(s) - metabolomics , isotope , computational biology , chemistry , cancer , metabolic pathway , biochemistry , isotopes of carbon , stable isotope ratio , biology , metabolism , bioinformatics , environmental chemistry , genetics , physics , quantum mechanics , total organic carbon
Abstract Stable Isotopes are nontoxic, naturally occurring elemental surrogates that are fully compatible with live organisms, including humans in a clinical setting. The ability to enrich common compounds with rare isotopes such as carbon ( 13 C) and nitrogen ( 15 N) is the only practical means by which metabolic pathways can be traced, performed by following the fate of individual atoms from the source molecules to products via metabolic transformation. Changes in regulation of pathways are therefore captured by this approach, which leads to deeper understanding of fundamental biochemistry of cancer compared with non‐cancerous cells, which can lead to new diagnostic tools. © 2008 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 60(2): 124–129, 2008