LC-MS, NMR Map Infant Urinary Metabolic Profiles

Factors around the time of birth play a major role in shaping how a newborn's body processes and uses nutrients, and these early influences may even affect health well into the future. But exactly how these factors change a baby's metabolism is not well understood yet. This knowledge gap inspired a team of researchers to take a close look at the metabolic patterns found in the urine of healthy, full-term, breastfed one-month-old babies, examining how these patterns related to various circumstances surrounding their birth. To do this, they analyzed the urine samples using liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). An article based on this study was published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Pediatrics.¹

How Can Early-life Conditions Shape Lifelong Health?

Factors around the time of birth can shape a baby's metabolism in ways that affect their health well into later life. This idea is known as the developmental origins of health and disease.²A wide range of metabolic problems, such as obesity, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease, have been linked back to unfavorable conditions during early development. This same pattern also applies to certain issues affecting brain development.^3,4There is growing evidence pointing to epigenetic changes (modifications that affect how genes are switched on or off without altering the DNA itself) as the main driving force behind these long-term effects.⁵

Why is Urine a Valuable Source for Finding Biomarkers?

Getting a better handle on the biological changes behind these lasting effects could make it easier to design strategies for preventing health problems down the road. Finding early warning signs—biomarkers—in babies is especially valuable, since they could help track how a child is developing and whether health interventions are working. Urine is a particularly useful source for finding these biomarkers because it's easy to collect, generally free of contamination, does not have much background interference, and contains a rich, complex mix of chemical information.⁶“In this context,” write the authors of the paper,¹ “metabolomic techniques represent a powerful tool for characterizing the urine metabolome and evaluating the impact of perinatal factors.”

How Did the Study Measure Infant Urine Chemistry?

The research team analyzed 96 urine samples from healthy, full-term, breastfed one-month-old babies using LC-MS and NMR. They first used exploratory statistical methods to figure out which factors—both from the mothers and the infants—were most closely linked to differences in the babies' urine chemistry. Then, they combined multiple types of data together to better understand what biological processes were behind these chemical patterns.¹

Which Perinatal Factors Were Most Strongly Linked to Differences in Babies' Metabolic Profiles?

Whether babies were exclusively breastfed (79 babies) or given a mix of breast milk and formula (17 babies) turned out to be the factor most strongly linked to differences in their urine chemistry. This was tied to differences in how their bodies processed carbohydrates and fats, the makeup of their gut bacteria, their oxidative stress levels (a measure of cellular damage), and how they handled vitamins, among other things.¹

The sex of the infant also made a difference, particularly affecting hormone-related compounds, amino acid levels, and substances tied to how cells produce energy (mitochondrial function). On top of that, how much weight babies gained in their first month was linked to differences in amino acid processing, gut bacteria, and antioxidant-related pathways.¹

“Urinary metabolomics,” write the authors of the paper,¹ “revealed distinct metabolic signatures associated with early-life exposures. Among the factors studied, breastfeeding type (mixed vs. exclusive) was associated with the most pronounced differences in the urinary metabolome. These findings highlight the potential of urinary metabolomics for investigating early-life metabolic adaptations and provide a basis for future studies exploring the relationship between infant feeding and metabolic programming.”

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References

1. Bibiloni, P.; Martin, J. C.; Cobo, P. et al. Breastfeeding Type is Associated with Urinary Metabolic Changes in Early Life: Influence of Sex and Early Weight Gain in Healthy Term Infants. Mol Cell Pediatr. 2026, 13 (1), 46. DOI: 10.1186/s40348-026-00258-9
2. Hanson, M. A.; Gluckman, P. D. Early Developmental Conditioning of Later Health and Disease: Physiology or Pathophysiology? Physiol Rev. 2014, 94 (4):1027-1076. DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00029.2013
3. Hoffman, D. J.; Powell, T. L.; Barrett, E. S. et al. Developmental Origins of Metabolic Diseases. Physiol Rev. 2021, 101 (3), 739-795. DOI: 10.1152/physrev.00002.2020
4. Horner, D.; Jepsen, J. R. M.; Chawes, B. et al. A Western Dietary Pattern During Pregnancy is Associated with Neurodevelopmental Disorders in Childhood and Adolescence. Nat Metab. 2025, 7 (3), 586-601.DOI: 10.1038/s42255-025-01230-z
5. Saavedra, L. P. J.; Piovan, S.; Moreira, V. M. et al. Epigenetic Programming for Obesity and Noncommunicable Disease: From Womb to Tomb. Rev Endocr Metab Disord. 2024, 25 (2), 309-324. DOI: 10.1007/s11154-023-09854-w
6. Pang, Z.; Chong, J.; Li, S. et al. MetaboAnalystR 3.0: Toward an Optimized Workflow for Global Metabolomics. Metabolites 2020, 10 (5),186. DOI: 10.3390/metabo10050186