Application of in vivo solid phase microextraction in exploring dynamic metabolic alterations in living organisms under exogenous stimulation

Abstract

Endogenous metabolite determination is critical for obtaining critical biological information, and this metabolic information can indicate an organism's metabolic disturbance in response to specific exogenous stimulation. However, due to the matrix complexity of biological samples and extremely low levels of unintended metabolites, sample pretreatment is necessary before injecting the analytes of interest into the instrumentation. Solid phase microextraction (SPME) is a novel and green sample pretreatment technique which integrates sampling, isolation, and concentration in a single step and has been widely used to analyze endogenous biological metabolites. Most importantly, in vivo SPME facilitates the extraction of short-lived species in living organisms, which is conducive to describe changes in biochemical pathways in organisms stimulated exogenously. Thus, this review will discuss the utilization of in vivo SPME to investigate the metabolic changes in organisms (e.g., microorganisms, plants, and animals) in response to exogenous stimulation and forecast its future development trend. We hope that this review will help promote further the application of in vivo SPME in toxicological research and personalized diagnosis.

Keywords

• Solid phase microextraction
• In vivo sampling
• Endogenous metabolite
• Metabolic response
• Exogenous stimulation