An untargeted fecal and urine metabolomics analysis of the interplay between the gut microbiome, diet and human metabolism in Indian and Chinese adults

Gut microbiome plays a vital role in human health. Human fecal and urine metabolome could provide a functional readout of gut microbial metabolism as well as its interaction with host and diet. However, this relationship still needs to be fully characterized. We established an untargeted GC-MS metabolomics method which enabled the detection of 122 and 86 metabolites including amino acids, phenolics, indoles, carbohydrates, sugars and metabolites of microbial origin from fecal and urine samples respectively. 41 compounds were confirmed using external standards. Next, we compared the fecal and urine metabolome of 16 healthy Indian and Chinese adults, ages 22–35 years, using a combined GC-MS and LC-MS approach. We showed dietary habit or ethnicity wise grouping of urine and fecal metabolite profiles of Indian and Chinese adults. Our analysis revealed 53 differentiating metabolites including higher abundance of amino acids and phenolics in Chinese and higher abundance of fatty acids, glycocholic acid, metabolites related to tryptophan metabolism in Indian adults. Correlation analysis showed a strong association of metabolites with gut bacterial profiles of the same subjects in the genus and species level. Thus, our results suggest that gut bacterial compositional changes could be eventually monitored and probed using a metabolomics approach.