Does centrifugation matter? Centrifugal force and spinning time alter the plasma metabolome

BACKGROUND: Centrifugation is an indispensable procedure for plasma sample preparation, but applied conditions can vary between labs. AIM: Determine whether routinely used plasma centrifugation protocols (1500×g 10 min; 3000×g 5 min) influence non-targeted metabolomic analyses. METHODS: Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (HRMS) data were evaluated with sparse partial least squares discriminant analyses and compared with cell count measurements. RESULTS: Besides significant differences in platelet count, we identified substantial alterations in NMR and HRMS data related to the different centrifugation protocols. CONCLUSION: Already minor differences in plasma centrifugation can significantly influence metabolomic patterns and potentially bias metabolomics studies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s11306-016-1109-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.