Metabolomic Analysis of Plasma From Patients With Acute Mountain Sickness Using Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

Although acute mountain sickness (AMS) has long been recognized, little is known about this condition to date. The current study was conducted to explore changes in the metabolomic profiles of AMS patients and to further assess the potential of using these changes for the diagnosis of AMS. Plasma samples from 12 patients with AMS and 12 individuals without AMS were collected and used for further bioinformatics analysis by gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS). The following analytical methods were used: gas chromatography–mass spectrometry data preprocessing, principal components analysis, partial least squares-discriminant analysis, model validation, orthogonal partial least squares-discriminant analysis, and the screening and identification of differences in metabolites. The results revealed a significant difference between the subjects with AMS and those in the control group. Compared with plasma from the controls, plasma from the AMS patients contained significantly increased hypoxanthine, cysteinylglycine, D-arabitol, L-allothreonine, 2-ketobutyric acid, and succinate semialdehyde. The identification of metabolomic changes may be useful for the diagnosis of AMS in the future and may lay the foundation for further study of AMS pathogenesis.