title: Clinical metabolomics and urinary NGAL for the early prediction of chronic kidney disease in healthy adults born ELBW.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Clinical metabolomics is a recent "omic" technology which is defined as a global holistic overview of the personal metabolic status (fingerprinting). This technique allows to prove metabolic differences in different groups of people with the opportunity to explore interactions such as genotype-phenotype and genotype-environment type, whether normal or pathological.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study chronic kidney injury 1) using urine metabolomic profiles of young adults born extremely low-birth weight (ELBW) and 2) correlating a biomarker of kidney injury, urinary neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), in order to confirm the metabolomic injury profile.
  
  
  METHODS
  Urine samples were collected from a group of 18 people (mean: 24-year-old, std: 4.27) who were born with ELBW and a group of 13 who were born at term appropriate for gestational age (AGA) as control (mean 25-year-old, std: 5.15). Urine samples were analyzed by (1)H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and then submitted to unsupervised and supervised multivariate analysis. Urine NGAL (uNGAL) was measured using ARCHITECT (ABBOTT diagnostic NGAL kit).
  
  
  RESULTS
  With a multivariate approach and using a supervised analysis method, PLS-DA, (partial least squares discriminant analysis) we could correlate ELBW metabolic profiles with uNGAL concentration. Conversely, uNGAL could not be correlated to AGA.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrates the relevance of the metabolomic technique as a predictive tool of the metabolic status of exELBW. This was confirmed by the use of uNGAL as a biomarker which may predict a subclinical pathological process in the kidney such as chronic kidney disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Toxicology, Oncology and Molecular Pathology Unit, University of Cagliari, Italy. latzori@unica.it
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Atzori
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mussap
authors.forename: Antonio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Noto
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Barberini
authors.forename: Melania
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Puddu
authors.forename: Elisabetta
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Coni
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Murgia
authors.forename: Milena
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lussu
authors.forename: Vassilios
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Fanos
mesh_terms: D000209:Acute-Phase Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine*; D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006262:Health; D006801:Humans; D052577:Infant, Extremely Low Birth Weight / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007676:Kidney Failure, Chronic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000652:urine; D000071068:Lipocalin-2; D054834:Lipocalins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine*; D008297:Male; D055432:Metabolomics / Q000379:methods*; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000652:urine*; D016482:Urinalysis / Q000379:methods; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000209:Acute-Phase Proteins; C489506:LCN2 protein, human; D000071068:Lipocalin-2; D054834:Lipocalins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins