Combined untargeted and targeted metabolomic profiling reveals urinary biomarkers for discriminating obese from normal‐weight adolescents

• Published in: Pediatric obesity Vol. 12; no. 2; pp. 93 - 101
• Main Authors: Cho, K., Moon, J. S., Kang, J‐H., Jang, H. B., Lee, H‐J., Park, S. I., Yu, K‐S., Cho, J‐Y.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.04.2017
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent obesity; biomarker; Biomarkers; Biomarkers - urine; Child; Childrens health; Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid; Female; Flow Injection Analysis; Humans; Inflammation; Male; Metabolites; Metabolome; Metabolomics - methods; Multivariate Analysis; Obesity; Pediatric Obesity - diagnosis; Pediatrics; Registries; Tandem Mass Spectrometry; Teenagers; Adolescent obesity; biomarker; inflammation; metabolome
• ISSN: 2047-6302; 2047-6310; 2047-6310
• DOI: 10.1111/ijpo.12114

Summary Background Childhood and adolescent obesity may lead to obesity and related complications in adulthood. Biomarkers of obesity can be useful for screening for obesity complications and promoting early intervention during school age. Thus, the metabolomic differences in obese children and adolescents should be investigated for identification of potential biomarkers. Objectives We investigated urinary biomarkers to distinguish metabolomic characteristics between obesity and normal weight in adolescents. Methods Adolescent subjects were divided into non‐obese (n = 91) and obese (n = 93) groups according to body mass index. Untargeted and targeted metabolomic profiling of urine was performed using high‐performance liquid chromatography (LC)‐quadrupole time‐of‐flight mass spectrometry (MS), LC‐MS/MS and flow injection analysis‐MS/MS systems, respectively. Results Multivariate statistical analysis showed clear discrimination between the untargeted metabolomes of non‐obese and obese groups. Seven endogenous metabolites were distinguished in the obese group, and inflammation‐related metabolite markers showed strong predictive power for group classification. From targeted metabolomics, 45 metabolites mostly related to inflammation were significantly different in the obese group. Conclusions Significantly different metabolome signatures were identified between normal‐weight and obese adolescents. Combined untargeted and targeted metabolomics demonstrated that inflammation‐driven insulin resistance, ammonia toxicity and oxidative stress may represent crucial metabolomic signatures in obese adolescents.