Gender-related and age-related urinalysis of healthy subjects by NMR-based metabonomics

NMR‐based metabonomic analysis is a well‐established approach to characterizing healthy and diseased states. The aim of this study was to investigate inter‐individual variability in the metabolic urinary profile of a healthy Greek population, not subjected to strict dietary limitations, by NMR‐based metabonomics. The overall metabonomic urinalysis showed a homogeneous distribution among the population. The metabolic profile was examined in relation to gender and age, and reference intervals of major metabolites were determined. Multivariate data analysis led to the construction of two robust models that were able to predict the class membership of the subjects studied according to their gender and age. The most influential low molecular weight metabolites responsible for the differences in gender groups were citrate, creatinine, trimethylamine N‐oxide, glycine, creatine and taurine, and for the differences in age groups they were citrate, creatinine, trimethylamine N‐oxide and an unidentified metabolite (δ 3.78). Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.