What is Formaldehyde?
Formaldehyde is the simplest and most reactive aldehyde compound. It can be categorized into exogenous and endogenous sources. Formaldehyde is ubiquitous in the environment, ranging from air, water, soil, natural foods, cosmetics, food preservatives, to digestive contents and intestinal flora. Prolonged or short-term exposure to high doses of formaldehyde can cause damage to various systems in the human body, including the eyes, skin, respiratory system, blood system, reproductive system, immune system, and even the central nervous system.
Why Quantitatively Analyze Formaldehyde?
Due to cellular metabolism, including humans, every organism naturally produces a significant amount of endogenous formaldehyde. Excessive formaldehyde can react with nucleic acids or proteins, induce oxidative stress, and significantly harm the central nervous system, leading to cognitive impairments such as Alzheimer's disease, among others. The production of endogenous formaldehyde poses a significant threat to genomic stability and protein function. Fortunately, mitochondria aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2), alcohol dehydrogenase 3 (ADH3), and alcohol dehydrogenase 5 (ADH5) are responsible for the metabolism and detoxification of endogenous formaldehyde. Gut microbiota and tetrahydrofolate also consume excess formaldehyde. Numerous studies have identified formaldehyde as a carcinogenic molecule. Overexpression of one-carbon metabolism-related enzymes and an increased one-carbon flux have been found in various cancers, providing essential biomolecules such as nucleotides required for tumor cell growth. Folate-driven one-carbon cycle is a central metabolic hub in cells, enabling the synthesis of nucleotides, amino acids, and epigenetic modifications. This cycle may also release formaldehyde (from the oxidative breakdown of the folate backbone). To counteract this reactive molecule, organisms have evolved detoxification systems centered around alcohol dehydrogenase 5 (ADH5), which converts formaldehyde to formic acid, a less reactive molecule used in nucleotide biosynthesis. Supplementation of essential cofactors for one-carbon cycle, such as tetrahydrofolate and other easily oxidized folate derivatives, can kill animal cells that cannot detoxify formaldehyde or lack DNA cross-link repair functions. Mammals convert endogenous, genetically toxic formaldehyde into a carbon source donor for one-carbon metabolism. Research into endogenous formaldehyde metabolism has garnered increasing interest among scientists, particularly in fields such as cancer and neuroscience.
Service Process
Formaldehyde Characterization Services
Creative Proteomics, following the development of various targeted metabolic detection products, has kept up with cutting-edge research and developed mass spectrometric detection products for the quantitative analysis and metabolic flow analysis of formaldehyde in biological samples. This allows for the characterization of formaldehyde in cellular, tissue, and fluid samples in terms of both quantification and metabolic flow.
Sample requirement
| Sample Type | Minimum Amount | Typical Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Animal and Clinical Tissue Samples | 5-10mg | 50mg |
| Blood Samples (Serum, Plasma, Whole Blood) | 10μL | 50μL |
| Urine Samples | 10μL | 50μL |
| Fecal and Gastrointestinal Content | 10mg | 25mg |
| Fluid Samples (Cerebrospinal Fluid, Saliva, etc.) | 5-10μL | 25μL |
| Plant Tissue Samples (Roots, Stems, Leaves, Flowers, Fruits, etc.) | 10mg | 50mg |
| Cell and Microbial Cells | 1*10^5 cells | 1*10^6 cells |
| Culture Media and Fermentation Broth | 10μL | 50μL |
References
- Hoffman EA, Frey BL, Smith LM, et al. Formaldehyde crosslinking: a tool for the study of chromatin complexes. J Biol Chem 2015,290: 26404–26411.
- Burgos-Barragan G, Wit N, Meiser J, et al.Mammals divert endogenous genotoxic formaldehyde in o one-carbon metabolism. Nature 2017,548: 549–554.