Profiling of plasma metabolites in canine oral melanoma using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry

Abstract

Malignant melanoma is one of the most common and aggressive tumors in the oral cavity of dog. The tumor has a poor prognosis, and methods for diagnosis and prediction of prognosis after treatment are required. Here, we examined metabolite profiling using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) for development of a discriminant model for evaluation of prognosis. Metabolite profiles were evaluated in healthy and melanoma plasma samples using orthogonal projection to latent structure using discriminant analysis (OPLS-DA). Cases that were predicted to be healthy using the OPLS discriminant model had no advanced lesions after radiation therapy. These results indicate that metabolite profiling may be useful in diagnosis and prediction of prognosis of canine malignant melanoma.

Fig. 1.

OPLS-DA plot for discrimination between healthy and melanoma dogs. Plasma metabolites profiles of melanoma dogs (black circles) were clearly discriminated from those of healthy dogs (white circles), and a discrimination model was built based on the data.

Fig. 2.

Metabolites showing significant changes in melanoma dog plasma. *P<0.05, **P<0.01, and ***P<0.001 by Steel-Dwass test.