Urine metabolomics of high-fat diet induced obesity using UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS

Obesity has become a global epidemic and public health challenge which associates with serious health issues including diabetes, cardiovascular disease, stroke, arthritis, and some types of cancer. To better understand obesity and obesity-related dysfunction, a high-fat diet (HFD) induced obese model was developed on Sprague-Dawley rats. Metabolomics based on ultra high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UHPLC-Q-TOF-MS) was untilized to identify and analyze obesity related metabolites in rat urine samples. Multivariate analyses were applied to differentiate metabolite patterns between HFD group and normal group. The study successfully identified 20 altered urine metabolites that correlated with obesity. These metabolites are mainly involved in tryptophan metabolism, phenylalanine and tyrosine metabolism, gut microbiota metabolism and insulin resistance related metabolism. They could serve as potential biomarkers to diagnose the development of obesity.