Nutrients (Nov 2020)

Early Infant Formula Feeding Impacts Urinary Metabolite Profile at 3 Months of Age

  • Fernanda Rosa,
  • Kelly E. Mercer,
  • Haixia Lin,
  • Clark R. Sims,
  • Lindsay M. Pack,
  • Grace Goode,
  • Thomas Badger,
  • Aline Andres,
  • Laxmi Yeruva

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12113552
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 12, no. 11
p. 3552

Abstract

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There is a growing consensus that nutritional programming may persist and influence risk for several chronic diseases in adulthood. In the present study, we used urinary metabolic analysis in assessing diet effects on early-life metabolism. Urine samples from healthy three-month-old infants fed human milk (HM; n = 93), cow’s milk-based infant formula [MF; n = 80], or soy protein-based infant formula (SF; n = 76) were analyzed with an untargeted metabolomics approach using GC-TOF MS. PLS-DA and ANOVA analyses were performed using MetaboAnalyst (v4.0). A total of 150 metabolites differed significantly among the feeding groups, including dietary-specific patterns of urinary metabolites of sugars, sugar alcohols, amino acids, and polyphenols. Urinary metabolites may mirror the infant’s overall metabolism and serve as a noninvasive tool to examine the neonatal effects of diet on early-infant metabolism.

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