Evolution of Newborns’ Urinary Metabolomic Profiles According to Age and Growth

Abstract

H-Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy for 90 newborns under 4 months of age, and free of metabolic, nephrologic, or urologic diseases. Supervised multivariate statistical analysis of the metabolic profiles revealed metabolites significantly associated with age, weight, and height, respectively. The tremendous growth occurring during the neonatal period is associated with specific modifications of newborns' metabolism. Conversely, gender appears to have no impact on the urine metabolome during early infancy. These results allow a deeper understanding of newborns' metabolic maturation and underline potential confounding factors in newborns' metabolomics studies. We emphasize the need to systematically and precisely report children age, height, and weight that impact urine metabolic profiles of infants.