van Ommen Ben, Keijer Jaap, Heil Sandra G, Kaput Jim
RIKILT-Institute of Food Safety, Wageningen University and Research Centre, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Mol Nutr Food Res. 2009 Jul;53(7):795-804. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.200800390.
A primary goal of nutrition research is to optimize health and prevent or delay disease. Biomarkers to quantify health optimization are needed since many if not most biomarkers are developed for diseases. Quantifying "normal homeostasis" and developing validated biomarkers are formidable tasks because of the robustness of homeostasis and of inter-individual diversity. In this paper, we discuss the science, strategies, and technologies for measuring parameters that define individual health. The following concepts are central to define the physiology of the healthy individual: (i) responses to a challenge of homeostasis will be more informative than static homeostatic measures; (ii) processes involved in maintaining homeostasis usually are multi-factorial and require quantitative analyses of the many individual components involved; (iii) health includes a large variation in "normality" and the effects of nutritional interventions may remain hidden in this "diversity of robustness," if incompletely analyzed. Specifically, comprehensive multi-parameter ("omics") analysis may identify key parameters (biomarkers) and lead to a greater understanding of health supporting processes. Perturbation tests that accurately target aspects of the overarching drivers of health (metabolism, oxidation, inflammation, and psychological stress) may be instrumental in creating knowledge for maintaining health and preventing disease through nutrition.
营养研究的一个主要目标是优化健康状况并预防或延缓疾病。由于许多（甚至可以说大多数）生物标志物是针对疾病开发的，因此需要能够量化健康优化程度的生物标志物。由于体内平衡的稳健性和个体间的多样性，量化“正常体内平衡”并开发经过验证的生物标志物是艰巨的任务。在本文中，我们讨论了用于测量定义个体健康的参数的科学、策略和技术。以下概念对于定义健康个体的生理学至关重要：（i）对体内平衡挑战的反应比静态的体内平衡测量更具信息性；（ii）维持体内平衡所涉及的过程通常是多因素的，需要对所涉及的许多个体成分进行定量分析；（iii）健康包括“正常”状态下的很大差异，如果分析不完整，营养干预的效果可能会隐藏在这种“稳健性的多样性”中。具体而言，全面的多参数（“组学”）分析可能会识别关键参数（生物标志物），并有助于更深入地了解支持健康的过程。准确针对健康总体驱动因素（代谢、氧化、炎症和心理压力）各个方面的扰动测试，可能有助于通过营养创造维持健康和预防疾病的知识。
