Urinary metabolomics (GC-MS) reveals that low and high birth weight infants share elevated inositol concentrations at birth

Objective: Metabolomics is a new ‘‘omics’’ platform aimed at high-throughput identification, quantification and characterization of small molecule metabolites. The metabolomics approach has been successfully applied to the classification different physiological states and identification of perturbed biochemical pathways. The purpose of the current investigation is the application of metabolomics to explore biological mechanisms which may lead to the onset of metabolic syndrome in adulthood. Methods: We evaluated differences in metabolites in the urine collected within 12 hours from 23 infants with IUGR (IntraUterine Growth Restriction), or LGA (Large for Gestational Age), compared to control infants (10 patients defined AGA: Appropriate for Gestational Age). Urinary metabolites were quantified by GC-MS and used to highlight similarities between the two metabolic diseases and identify metabolic markers for their predisposition. Quantified metabolites were analyzed using a multivariate statistics coupled with receiver operator characteristic curve (ROC) analysis of identified biomarkers. Results: Urinary myo-inositol was the most important discriminant between LGA + IUGR and control infants, and displayed an area under the ROC curve¼1. Conclusion: We postulate that the increase in plasma and consequently urinary inositol may constitute a marker of altered glucose metabolism during fetal development in both IUGR and LGA newborns.