fig1

Figure 1. Study design for determining a biomonitoring baseline by characterizing the hair metabolome across age and sex. A study design for exploring the variations of metabolomic profiles with age and sex in human hair by UHPLC-HRMS. Hair samples from the elder group (12 males and 12 females) and the younger group (12 males and 12 females) were collected and subjected to untargeted metabolomics analysis. After hair sample decontamination, homogenization, and extraction, the hair extracts were analyzed with UHPLC-HRMS. The raw MS data were converted to peak lists using MS-DIAL for feature detection, alignment, and compound identification to explore chemical structure, and then, the metabolic pathways were analyzed. UHPLC-HRMS: Ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with high-resolution mass spectrometry; MS: mass spectrometry.