Metabonomics: Metabolic processes studied by NMR spectroscopy of biofluids

NMR spectroscopy of biofluids provides a wealth of information on the endog enous metabolic processes in an organism Details of the various types of bi ofluid and the types of NMR experiment which are useful are given. The feat ures of biofluid NMR spectra are described and practical details of spectra l acquisition are also presented. However, the spectra are very complex and many resonances have not been assigned. Therefore, in order to focus on si gnificant differences between a set of spectra from control organisms and f rom abnormals (e.g.. humans with diseases or animals in toxic situations), recourse is made to pattern recognition or chemometric methods. This is exe mplifed using NMR spectra of a number of different biofluids such as urine, blood plasma, and cerebrospinal fluid. This approach is encapsulated in th e concept of metabonomics, a subject which can be regarded as complementary to studies of the genome (genomics) and the proteins in an organism (prote omics). Metabonomics is defined as "the quantitative measurement of the mul tiparametric metabolic response of living systems to pathophysiological sti muli or genetic modification." (C) 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.