The Role of Isotope Tracers in Investigating Metabolic Disorders
A special issue of Metabolites (ISSN 2218-1989). This special issue belongs to the section "Metabolomic Profiling Technology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2025) | Viewed by 1508
Special Issue Editor
Interests: isotope labeling; metabolomics; mass spectrometry; chromatography; tracer experiments; amino acid analysis
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Metabolic disorders can affect all aspects of metabolism. Metabolic deregulation leads to alterations in metabolic fluxes, and the study of these fluxes is essential for understanding disease outcomes, as well as their early diagnostic and prevention. Biochemical fluxes are most commonly measured using isotopes, either by administering an isotopic label used to visualize the flow of a metabolic tracer, or via a natural abundance of stable isotopes that varies between tissues and metabolites due to isotopic effects in biological processes.
With technological advancements, various types of stable isotope–mass spectrometric techniques have provided us with opportunities for measuring fluxes through intact metabolic pathways. Analytical platforms for these experiments include gas and liquid chromatography (GC and LC) coupled to mass spectrometry (MS) or isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS). Infrared (IR) spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) are used to measure heavy isotopes of organic elements, whereas inductively coupled plasma (ICP)-MS is used for stable inorganic isotopes. A combination of metabolomic and proteomic approaches with stable isotope tracing is used to study the relationship between metabolites and physiological processes.
In this Special Issue, we highlight the application of stable isotope approaches in various domains of human physiology and physiopathology in order to improve our understanding of metabolic pathways, particularly in relation to metabolic disorders. We invite researchers from various disciplines to share their recent findings, including in vitro studies, in vivo studies using animal models, as well as intervention and epidemiological studies. We welcome research and review articles that focus on methodology and research in the area of stable isotope-based biomarker discovery, method development, validation, diagnostic approaches and applications for human physiology and health.
Dr. Nadezda Khodorova
Guest Editor
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Keywords
- kinetics effect
- isotope ratio mass spectrometry
- biomarker
- fluxomics
- metabolomics
- stable isotope
- tracing experiments
- mass spectrometry
- breath tests
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