Serum Metabolomics Study of Polycystic Ovary Syndrome Based on Liquid Chromatography–Mass Spectrometry

The study investigated the serum metabolic characteristics of women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) using a non-targeted metabolomics approach, analyzing 131 discovery phase samples and 109 validation phase samples from both PCOS patients and healthy controls. Significant metabolic differences were found between the two groups, including altered levels of unsaturated free fatty acids, fatty acid amides, sulfated steroids, glycated amino acids, lysophosphatidylcholines, and lysophosphatidylethanolamines, suggesting abnormalities in lipid and androgen metabolism, increased stearoyl-CoA desaturase activity, and accumulation of advanced glycation end-products in PCOS patients. The researchers identified a combination of five metabolites as potential diagnostic biomarkers for PCOS, with high accuracy in both the discovery (AUC of 0.839) and validation (AUC of 0.874) phases, offering new insights into the pathogenesis of PCOS and a possible diagnostic tool.