A strategy for the targeted metabolomics analysis of 11 gut microbiota-host co-metabolites in rat serum, urine and feces by ultra high performance liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry

•Targeted quantitative metabolomics was developed for 11 gut microbiota-host co-metabolites.•The LC–MS/MS method is rapid, selective, sensitive and robust.•The method can monitor dynamic changes of 11 metabolites in serum, urine and feces.•The method is useful for the study of mechanisms of microbiota-host interaction. Microbiota-host co-metabolites are well-known to play important physiological roles, and their dysregulation has been found to be closely related to various diseases, including but not limited to inflammatory disorders. We developed herein an original and feasible method using ultra performance liquid chromatography—tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC–MS/MS). The method developed enables rapid quantification of 11 key gut microbiota-host co-metabolites spanning the succinate, phenylacetylglutamine, hippurate and trimethylamine metabolic pathways within 10min. With this method, we were able to simultaneously monitor inflammation-induced alterations of these metabolites in rat serum, urine and feces matrices. The measured levels for this panel of endogenous metabolites ranged from 0.001 to 172.8μgmL−1. The intra- and inter-day precision of three analytes was less than 13.1% and the accuracy was between −13.0 to 11.2% for all QC levels. The extraction recoveries in serum ranged from 85.4 to 103.2%, while the RSD was 9.0% or less for all recoveries. In addition, extraction recoveries of 11 analytes in urine and feces samples were between 85.7% and 102.0% and RSD was less than 9.5%. The method developed here has been successfully applied to the analysis of real samples from 2,4,6-trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid-induced Crohn’s disease in rats. All of these results suggest that the presently developed method is sufficiently sensitive and robust to simultaneously monitor co-metabolites with diverse properties and a range of different concentrations. Therefore, this method will be expected to be useful for comprehensive studies of the pathophysiological roles and mechanisms of these key microbiota-host co-metabolites, which reflect the function of the intestine, consequently offering novel opportunities for evaluating the occurrence, development and therapeutic effects of diseases related to microbiota disturbances.