Spot urine collection: A valid alternative to total urine collection for metabolomic studies in dairy cattle

Urine is a highly suitable biological matrix for metabolomics studies. Total collection for 24-h periods is the gold standard as it ensures the presence of all metabolites excreted throughout the day. However, in animal studies, it presents limitations related to animal welfare and also due to alterations of the metabolome originating from the use of acid for preventing microbial growth or microbial contamination. In this study, we investigated whether spot urine collection is a practical alternative to total collection for metabolomic studies in lactating cows. For this purpose, we collected urine samples from 4 lactating Holstein cows fed 4 diets in a 4 × 4 Latin square design. Urine was collected for 24 h using a collecting device (i.e., total collection) or collected once per day 4 h after the morning feeding (i.e., spot urine collection). Dietary treatments differed by the amount of nitrogen content (high vs. low) and by the nature of the energy (starch vs. fiber). Urine metabolome was analyzed by 2 untargeted complementary methods, nuclear magnetic resonance and hydrophilic-interaction liquid chromatography (HILIC) coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer, and by 1 targeted method, HILIC-tandem mass spectrometry. Although sampling technique had an effect on the abundance of metabolites detected, spot urine samples were equally capable of showing differences in urine metabolome than samples from total collection. When considering nitrogen levels in the diet, the robustness and precision for discriminating high- and low-nitrogen diets was equally achieved with both sampling techniques. A total of 22 discriminant metabolites associated with the N level of diets were identified from untargeted HILIC coupled to a time-of-flight mass spectrometer (n = 9) and nuclear magnetic resonance (n = 11), and 2 from targeted HILIC-tandem mass spectrometry. Alternatively, starch or fiber in the diet induced less changes in the metabolome that were not clearly discriminated independently of the sampling technique. We concluded that spot urine collection can successfully reveal differences in the urine metabolome elicited by dietary N levels and be used as a substitute of total urinary 24-h collection for metabolomic studies.