Sex differences in fecal metabolic profiles of major depressive disorder: unveiling sex-specific metabolomic panel.

BACKGROUND

Major depressive disorder (MDD) disproportionately affects women, who exhibit a higher prevalence and greater symptom severity than men. However, sex-specific pathophysiological mechanisms remain poorly understood. Emerging evidence implicates gut microbiota-derived metabolites in MDD, but many prior studies have failed to consider sex differences, potentially obscuring critical biomarkers. This study aims to address this gap by characterizing sex-specific fecal metabolite profiles in MDD.

METHODS

Untargeted metabolomics was used to examine fecal metabolic profiles in 279 participants (117 with MDD and 162 healthy controls). The cohort was stratified by biological sex to identify sex-specific metabolic alterations associated with depressive symptoms through statistical analyses. A machine learning approach incorporating feature selection was employed to identify potential discriminative biomarkers, with a particular focus on female metabolic characteristics.

RESULTS

Sex-stratified analysis revealed significant metabolic divergence in female MDD patients compared to healthy controls. Twenty-four differentially abundant metabolites were identified in females, with heptylamine and phenaceturic acid being unique to this group; no significant differences were observed in males. Correlation analyses showed that phenaceturic acid and 1-monoheptadecanoyl glyceride were significantly negatively correlated with depressive symptom severity in females. Besides, a sex-specific diagnostic panel based on five key fecal metabolites demonstrated promising performance in distinguishing female MDD patients from healthy controls.

CONCLUSION

By systematically revealing sex-dependent metabolic alterations, this study identified potential biomarkers for sex-specific diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. These findings highlight the importance of integrating sex-specific perspectives in gut-brain axis research to advance precision medicine in MDD, rather than relying solely on generalized approaches.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

Human Research and Ethics Committee of Beijing Anding Hospital, Capital Medical University, China (Approval No. 2017-24), registered on 2018.07.24.