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Abstract :
[en] Metabolomics, the study of small biological molecules, is gaining interest for clinical applications. While blood is the reference matrix, its invasive sampling highlights the need for alternatives. Urine, a non-invasive biofluid, allows easy self-sampling and larger sample volumes. Therefore this study aimed to assess whether urine could reflect metabolic variations observed in blood, particularly in response to external stimuli such as food intake and physical exercise.
To this end fourteen healthy volunteers provided blood and urine samples at three timepoints: fasting (T1), post-breakfast followed by exercise (T2), and fasting again one week later (T3). Samples were analysed using NMR spectroscopy to evaluate metabolic changes across these conditions.
Multivariate analyses revealed significant metabolic shifts between T1 (baseline) and T2 (post-stimuli), while T1 and T3 showed no differences. Univariate analysis identified alanine, lactate, and methanol as the only metabolites significantly increased at T2 in both matrices. Urine, however, detected a greater number of metabolites, offering richer metabolic insights.
These findings suggest that blood and urine are not interchangeable but rather complementary, enabling a more comprehensive metabolic assessment. This approach holds promise for personalized medicine, where biofluid selection depends on pathology. Future studies will expand this comparison to dried blood spots (DBS) and saliva.
