Large-scale non-targeted serum metabolomics in the Swedish Twin Registry

The TwinGene project, conducted between 2004 and 2008, is a population-based Swedish study of twins born between 1911 and 1958. The study participants have previously participated in a telephone interview called Screening Across the Lifespan Twin Study, conducted between 1998 and 2002. To be included in TwinGene, both twins within a pair had to be alive. In total, 12591 individuals participated by donating blood to the study, and by answering questionnaires about life style and health. For the purpose of metabolomic profiling, we designed a case-cohort of incident coronary heart disease, diabetes, dementia and ischemic stroke events and a matched sub-cohort (controls) stratified on age and sex. In the final analysis we included serum samples from 2,139 individuals.