Detection of the metabolites of human plasma and follicular fluid in IVF-ET with microextraction and LC-TOF-MS

The metabolites from human plasma and follicular fluid in IVF-ET are related with the metabolic activity of follicular cells and further with oocyte quality. With liquid chromatography-time-of-flight-mass spectrometry (LC-TOF-MS) and organic extraction from plasma and follicular fluid, a fast and efficient method was established for detecting the metabolites of human plasma and follicular fluid. Certain metabolites were closely related with human physiological activities, such as hormone, amino acid, estrogen and fatty acid, and estrogen fatty acyllipid lipid were successfully detected in human plasma and follicular fluid. The metabolites in follicular fluid and plasma on the day of oocyte retrieval were found to be similar. But those in the latter and basal plasma were partially different. Methyl (3α,5β,7α,12α)-3,7,12-trihydroxycholan-24-oate, androst-4-ene-3,17-dione and tryptophan were identified and might be potential biomarkers on oocyte quality. It demonstrates that LC-TOF-MS combined with organic extraction could be an efficient tool to investigate the metabolites of human plasma and follicular fluid. Based on this study, it is expected to provide the basis for the further steps to explore possible influential factors on oocyte quality.