Urinary metabolic insights into host-gut microbial interactions in healthy and IBD children

Abstract AIM: To identify metabolic signatures in urine samples from healthy and inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) children. METHODS: We applied liquid chromatography and gas chromatography coupled to targeted mass spectrometry (MS)-based metabolite profiling to identify and quantify bile acids and host-gut microbial metabolites in urine samples collected from 21 pediatric IBD patients monitored three times over one year (baseline, 6 and 12 mo), and 27 age- and gender-matched healthy children. RESULTS: urinary metabolic profiles of IBD children differ significantly from