ETH Zurich, Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences, Zurich, Switzerland.
PLoS One. 2013;8(4):e59909. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059909. Epub 2013 Apr 3.
The metabolic phenotype varies widely due to external factors such as diet and gut microbiome composition, among others. Despite these temporal fluctuations, urine metabolite profiling studies have suggested that there are highly individual phenotypes that persist over extended periods of time. This hypothesis was tested by analyzing the exhaled breath of a group of subjects during nine days by mass spectrometry. Consistent with previous metabolomic studies based on urine, we conclude that individual signatures of breath composition exist. The confirmation of the existence of stable and specific breathprints may contribute to strengthen the inclusion of breath as a biofluid of choice in metabolomic studies. In addition, the fact that the method is rapid and totally non-invasive, yet individualized profiles can be tracked, makes it an appealing approach.
由于饮食和肠道微生物组成等外部因素，代谢表型存在很大差异。尽管存在这些时间上的波动，但尿液代谢物分析研究表明，存在高度个体化的表型，这些表型会在很长一段时间内持续存在。这一假设通过对一组受试者在九天内的呼气进行质谱分析得到了验证。与基于尿液的先前代谢组学研究一致，我们得出结论，呼气成分存在个体特征。稳定和特定呼吸特征的确认可能有助于加强将呼吸作为代谢组学研究中首选生物流体的选择。此外，该方法快速、完全非侵入性，同时可以跟踪个体化的特征，这使其成为一种有吸引力的方法。
