Metabonomics, dietary influences and cultural differences: a 1H NMR-based study of urine samples obtained from healthy British and Swedish subjects

The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and comparability of metabonomic data in clinical studies conducted in different countries without dietary restriction. A 1H NMR-based metabonomic analysis was performed on urine samples obtained from two separate studies, both including male and female subjects. The first was on a group of healthy British subjects ( n = 120), whilst the second was on healthy subjects from two European countries (Britain and Sweden, n = 30). The subjects were asked to provide single, early morning urine samples collected on a single occasion. The 1H NMR spectra obtained for urine samples were visually inspected and analysed chemometrically using principal components analysis (PCA). These inspections highlighted outliers within the urine samples and displayed interesting differences, revealing characteristic dietary and cultural features between the subjects of both countries, such as high trimethylamine- N-oxide (TMAO)-excretion in the Swedish population and high taurine-excretion, due to the Atkins diet. This study suggests that the endogenous urinary profile is subject to distinct cultural and severe dietary influences and that great care needs to be taken in the interpretation of ‘biomarkers of disease and response to drug therapy’ for diagnostic purposes.