Savita Singh1,
Sujeet R. Mewar2, Uma Sharma2, Naranamangalam R.
Jagannathan2, H Krishna Prasad1
1Department
of Biotechnology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Delhi,
India; 2Department of NMR & MRI Facility, All India Institute
of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Delhi, India
Stress activates hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal-axis; inducing production of glucocorticoids such as cortisol, The aim of the study was to identify metabolite, biomarker(s) of stress. Experiments were designed to assess the effect of dexamethasone, a synthetic glucocorticoid on the metabolic profile of monocytic THP1 cells. The metabolites generated by cells cultured in the presence/absence of dexamethasone were monitored by high-resolution NMR spectroscopy. Twenty-six metabolites were identified by 1D and 2D TOCSY plots. Seven metabolites namely, lactate, alanine, glutamine, glutamate, glutathione, choline and phosphorylethanolamine were significantly decreased in dexamethasone treated cells while three metabolites acetate, aspartate, and myo-inositol significantly increased in dexamethasone treated cells.