Metabolomic landscape of fetal organ development during late gestation in mice

Metabolism is the critical basis for mammalian physiological functions. The systematic metabolic characteristics of major organ development during late gestation to adapt to postnatal environmental changes are still absent. Here, we detected metabolic patterns of the ICR mouse fetal organs, including the heart, stomach, liver, brain, and placenta, from embryonic days (E)15.5 to 19.5 using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry combined with RNA sequencing and proteomics data. Our metabolic and multi-omics data showed that organs exhibited their unique metabolic characteristics during late gestation, and significant metabolic pattern transitions, especially the enhancement of digesting the fatty acids and proteins, occurred at the E16.5 to E18.5 stage. Additionally, we found the abundance of carnosine and histidine in the placenta may serve as a way to test their levels in the newborn brain in vitro. Our dataset provides a comprehensive metabolic landscape of mammalian organ development in late gestation. A comprehensive metabolomic atlas of major fetal organs in late-gestation mice by integrates untargeted and targeted metabolomics with multi-omics data, offering new insights into fetal development and metabolic preparation for birth.