Paired tumor-normal metabolomic profiling reveals alterations in choline phospholipid precursor metabolism in biliary tract cancer.

Authors

Hironobu Suto, Kensuke Kumamoto, Mina Nagao, Yumi Furuichi, Takuro Fuke, Hiroyuki Matsukawa, Yasuhisa Ando, Minoru Oshima, Kiyoyuki Kobayashi, Hideki Kobara, Tomoyoshi Soga, Keiichi Okano

Published in

Journal of gastroenterology. Jun 22, 2026. Epub Jun 22, 2026.

Abstract

The metabolic landscape of biliary tract cancer (BTC) remains poorly characterized. This study aimed to identify tumor-specific metabolic alterations in BTC using paired tumor and adjacent normal tissues.
Metabolomic profiling was performed on paired tumor and adjacent normal tissues from 71 patients with BTC using capillary electrophoresis time-of-flight mass spectrometry. Differential metabolites were identified using paired statistical analysis with false discovery rate correction. Pathway enrichment analysis was conducted using the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes database.
Seventeen metabolites were significantly altered between tumor and normal tissues. Pathway analysis identified glycerophospholipid metabolism as the most enriched pathway, driven by water-soluble precursor and intermediate metabolites, including phosphorylcholine, CDP-choline, and ethanolamine phosphate. Hierarchical clustering demonstrated partially distinct metabolic patterns between tumor and normal tissues, with substantial inter-sample variability observed among tumor samples. Metabolites related to amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism were also increased in tumor tissues. Additional pathways, including nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism and arginine and proline metabolism, were also enriched. Principal component analysis showed partial separation between tumor and normal samples, indicating global metabolic differences between the two groups. These findings indicate metabolic alterations across multiple pathways in BTC.
Paired tissue metabolomics revealed coordinated metabolic alterations in BTC involving choline phospholipid precursor metabolism, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, and additional amino acid-related pathways. These results highlight the presence of broad metabolic reprogramming in BTC and underscore the importance of tissue-based metabolomic profiling for characterizing tumor metabolism.

PMID:
42329389
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 22 Jun 2026.

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