Doctoral Thesis
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Übergewicht ist einer der wichtigsten Risikofaktoren für kardiovaskuläre und metabolische
Erkrankungen. Vor allem eine vermehrte Akkumulation von viszeralem Fettgewebe (VAT) im
Vergleich zu subkutanem Fettgewebe (SAT) wird als Hauptursache für Adipositas-assoziierte
Erkrankungen vermutet. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wurden ungerichtete metabolische
Analysen (Metabolomics) verwendet, um metabolische Stoffwechselwege und kleinste
Moleküle zu identifizieren, die mit einer Akkumulation von VAT oder SAT assoziiert sind.
Die Studienpopulation bestand aus 491 Proband:innen ohne metabolische Erkrankungen (192
Männer, 299 Frauen), die im Rahmen einer großen populationsbasierten Studie aus dem
Nordosten Deutschlands intensiv untersucht wurden. Mit Hilfe linearer Regressionsmodelle
wurden die Assoziationen zwischen der mittels MRT quantifizierten Menge der
Fettkompartimente VAT und SAT und dem Metabolom im Plasma und Urin untersucht. Die
Metabolite wurden dabei durch massenspektrometrische Verfahren quantifiziert. Insgesamt
zeigte sich, dass VAT mehr Assoziationen zum Metabolom des Plasmas (54 Metabolite) und
Urins (101 Metabolite) aufwies als SAT (20 Plasmametabolite; 29 Urinmetabolite). Letzteres
metabolische Profil wurde fast vollständig von den zu VAT assoziierten Signaturen überlagert.
Geschlechtsspezifische Unterschiede ließen sich nur bei einem geringen Anteil der
untersuchten Assoziationen identifizieren. Signifikante Assoziationen ließen sich vor allem mit
Fettsäure-Abkömmlingen und Zwischenprodukten aus dem Metabolismus von
verzweigtkettigen Aminosäuren beobachten. Außerdem waren Metabolite signifikant
assoziiert, die einen veränderten Kohlenhydrat- und Kortisol-Metabolismus anzeigen. Darüber
hinaus ließen sich Assoziationen mit Markern aus dem Darm-Mikrobiom abbilden, die
vermutlich einen ungünstigen Lebensstil widerspiegeln. Zudem konnte eine neuartige positive
Assoziation zwischen VAT und den im Plasma gemessenen Gehalt des pharmakologischen
Wirkstoffes Piperin nachgewiesen werden. Alles in allem lassen sich Hinweise bezüglich der
Entwicklung von Adipositas-bezogenen Krankheiten liefern. Die vorliegende Studie stellt somit
die Gesundheit des Metaboloms bei „gesunden“ Personen in Frage und bietet die Möglichkeit,
die Entstehung von Adipositas auf molekularer Ebene zu verstehen. Es sind jedoch
weiterführende Untersuchungen notwendig, um diejenigen Menschen zu identifizieren,
deren Metabolom Auffälligkeiten zeigten und so bereits frühzeitig der Entstehung von
Krankheiten entgegenwirken zu können.
Metabolomics is the scientific study of metabolites of an organism, cell, or tissue. Metabolomics makes use of different analytical approaches. In this thesis, an analytical platform consisting of proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-NMR), gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS, EI/quadrupol) and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS, ESI/TOF) was used for metabolite analysis. Due to the high physicochemical diversity of metabolites, the usage of different analytics is profitable. Focusing on metabolome analysis of microorganisms, the development of viable protocols was prerequisite. To ensure metabolome samples of best possible quality, particularly the sampling procedure has to be optimized for each microorganism to be analyzed individually. In microbial metabolomics, the energy charge value is a commonly used parameter to assure high sample quality (Atkinson 1968). The pathogenic bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and the biotechnical relevant bacterium Bacillus subtilis were main target of research. The sampling protocol development “A protocol for the investigation of the intracellular Staphylococcus aureus metabolome” (Meyer et al. 2010) and “Methodological approaches to help unravel the intracellular metabolome of Bacillus subtilis”s (Meyer et al. 2013) confirmed the need for development and verification of viable protocols. It was observed, that minor differences in the sampling procedure can cause major differences in sample quality. Using the validated analytical platform and the optimized protocols, we were able to investigate the metabolome of S. aureus and B. subtilis under different conditions. Investigations of the pathogenic bacterium S. aureus are of major interest due to its increasing resistance to antibiotics. Methicillin (multi)-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) strains are responsible for several difficult-to-treat infections. The cell wall of bacteria is the target of an array of antibiotics, like the beta-lactam antibiotics. Our study “A metabolomic view of Staphylococcus aureus and Its Ser/Thr kinase and phosphatase deletion mutants: Involvement in cell wall biosynthesis” (Liebeke et al. 2010) revealed the influence of the serine-threonine kinase on cell wall biosynthesis of S. aureus. LC-MS based metabolome data uncovered prevalent wall teichoic acid precursors in the serine-threonine kinase deletion mutant (ΔpknB), and predominantly peptidoglycan precursors in the phosphatase deletion mutant (Δstp), compared to the S. aureus wild type strain 8325. This uncovered a so far undescribed importance of the serine-threonine kinase on the cell wall metabolism and provides new insights into its regulation. The nasopharynx and the human skin are often the ecological niche of S. aureus. Furthermore, S. aureus exists outside its host, for example on catheters. Depending on its niche, S. aureus is exposed to several stress factors and limitation conditions, such as carbon source limitation and starvation. To cope with the latter, a number of regulatory cellular processes take place. In “Life and death of proteins: a case study of glucose-starved Staphylococcus aureus” (Michalik et al. 2012) protein degradation during glucose starvation was monitored. An intriguing observation was that proteins involved in branch chain amino acid biosynthesis and purine nucleotide biosynthesis were distinctly down-regulated in the clpP mutant. This lead to the assumption of a stronger repression of CodY-dependent genes in the clpP mutant. Intracellular metabolome data revealed higher GTP concentrations in the clpP mutant. This may explain the higher CodY activity and thereby stronger repression of CodY-dependent genes in the clpP mutant. Since different S. aureus strains are known to colonize different niches, global carbon source (glucose, glucose 6-phosphate, glycerol, lactate, lactose and a mixture of all) and carbon source limitation dependent exo-metabolome analyses were performed using three different S. aureus strains (HG001: laboratory strain, EN493: human endocarditis isolate and RF122: bovine mastitis strain). The most apparent observation was that RF122 can utilize lactose best, while EN493 and HG001 are better at utilizing glucose-6-phosphate compared to the bovine RF122 strain. Bacillus subtilis is an extensively studied Gram-positive and non-pathogenic bacterium. In the functional genomics approach “System-wide temporal proteomics profiling in glucose-starved Bacillus subtilis” (Otto et al. 2010) growth phase dependent changes in the proteome, transcriptome and extracellular metabolome were monitored. By mass spectrometric analysis of five different cellular subfractions, ~ 52% of the predicted proteins could be identified. To confirm and complete the proteomic data transcriptome and extracellular metabolome analyses were performed. The extracellular metabolome data ensured that cells were glucose-starved and revealed growth phase dependent metabolic footprints. In “A time resolved metabolomics study: The influence of different carbon sources during growth and starvation of Bacillus subtilis” ((Meyer et al. 2013) submitted) four different compounded cultivation media were investigated as only glucose, glucose and malate, glucose and fumarate and glucose and citrate as carbon source. It could be shown, that B. subtilis is able to maintain an intracellular metabolite homeostasis independent of the available carbon source. On the other hand, in the exo-metabolome, carbon source as well as growth phase dependent differences were detected. Furthermore, in this study the influence of ATP and GTP on the activation of the alternative RNA polymerase sigma factor B (σB) was discussed. The concentration of ATP and GTP decreased for all conditions, as cells entered the stationary growth phase. While cell growth on solely glucose and during growth on glucose and additional malate, the ATP and GTP concentrations increased slightly when the consumption of the second carbon source was initiated. Only under these conditions, a considerable σB activity increase during the transition from exponential to stationary growth phase was observed. Furthermore, the developed sampling protocol for metabolome analysis of B. subtilis enabled us to be part of a “multi omics” system biological approach to study the physiological adjustment of B. subtilis to cope with osmotic stress under chemostat conditions.