Comparative Fecal Metabolomics Analysis of Healthy Elderly and Young Male Singaporean

In recent years, emerging evidence from gut metagenomics studies has demonstrated that gut microbiome has a crucial role in health and aging. The gut metabolome, which is generated by the gut microbiota and host, is the link between the gut microbiome and host. Thus, the gut metabolomics analysis can provide deep insights into the relationship between the gut microbiome and human health. In this study, the GC-MS based metabolomics platform was used to perform a comparative metabolomics analysis of faeces samples from 33 healthy elderly and 32 young male Singaporeans.

The observed metabolite profiles showed significantly different levels (FDR value<0.05) between young and elderly male individuals. Elderly faecal samples contained higher relative concentrations of long chain fatty acids, but contained lower levels of short chain fatty acids; lower levels of branch chain amino acids and other amino acids and metabolites involved in amino acid metabolism; and lower levels of metabolites involved in carbohydrate metabolism. The observed significantly changed metabolites datasets suggests age probably contributes to fatty acid metabolism, amino acid metabolism and carbohydrate metabolism alterations. This work not only provides an important reference dataset for understanding the concentrations and variation in the Asian faecal metabolome, but also adds to the growing evidence of the importance of fatty acids and amino acids in chronic metabolic disease progression. In future, the combination of metabolomics, metagenomics and transcriptomics will enable more detailed studies of these biological pathways and the changes with age and provide targeted gut microbiome management strategies that promote healthy ageing.