Metabolomics of ApcMin/+ mice genetically susceptible to intestinal cancer

Background To determine how diets high in saturated fat could increase polyp formation in the mouse model of intestinal neoplasia, Apc Min/+ , we conducted large-scale metabolome analysis and association study of colon and small intestine polyp formation from plasma and liver samples of Apc Min/+ vs. wild-type littermates, kept on low vs. high-fat diet. Label-free mass spectrometry was used to quantify untargeted plasma and acyl-CoA liver compounds, respectively. Differences in contrasts of interest were analyzed statistically by unsupervised and supervised modeling approaches, namely Principal Component Analysis and Linear Model of analysis of variance. Correlation between plasma metabolite concentrations and polyp numbers was analyzed with a zero-inflated Generalized Linear Model.