Global urinary metabolic profiling of the osteonecrosis of the femoral head based on UPLC-QTOF/MS

INTRODUCTION

Osteonecrosis of the femoral head (ONFH), one of the widespread orthopedic diseases with a decrease in bloodstream to the femoral head, is frequently accompanied by cellular death, trabecula fracture, and collapse of the articular surface. The exactly pathological mechanism of ONFH remains to explore and further identify.

OBJECTIVES

The aim was to identify the global urinary metabolic profiling of ONFH and to detect biomarkers of ONFH.

METHODS

Urine samples were collected from 26 ONFH patients and 26 healthy people. Ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time of flight tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-QTOF/MS) in combination with multivariate statistical analysis was developed and performed to identify the global urinary metabolic profiling of ONFH.

RESULTS

The urinary metabolic profiling of ONFH group was significantly separated from the control group by multivariate statistical analysis. 33 distinctly differential metabolites were detected between the ONFH patients and healthy people. Sulfate, urea, Deoxycholic acid and PE(14:0/14:1(9Z)) were screened as the potential biomarkers of ONFH. In addition, the up/down-regulation of sulfur metabolism, cysteine and methionine metabolism, glycerophospholipid metabolism, and histidine metabolism were clearly be associated with the ONFH pathogenic progress.

CONCLUSION

Our results suggested that metabolomics could serve as a promising approach for identifying the diagnostic biomarkers and elucidating the pathological mechanism of ONFH.

Bone necrosis and urinary hydroxyproline excretion in rabbits

1. Aseptic necrosis of bone is a serious chronic complication of deep-sea diving and compressed-air work. 2. The changes to the bone which occur in this condition take time to develop to the stage where they cause the radiographic signs of bone necrosis, and consequently there is a delay of some months between the causal incident and the first diagnosis by radiography. 3. As a possible method for the earlier detection of bone necrosis the 24 h urinary excretion of hydroxyproline was measured over a period before and after experimental production of bone necrosis in rabbits by the intra-arterial injection of glass microspheres. 4. Total hydroxyproline excretion rose significantly within a few days of the injection in those rabbits in which there was later shown to be historical evidence of bone necrosis. This rise occurred long before there was any radiographic changes. 5. It is suggested that measurements of urinary hydroxyproline might be used to give an early indication of bone necrosis in man.