Nutritional Metabolomics: the Search for Dietary Exposure Variables 2

Study Overview
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Brief Summary
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In the post-genomic era, a major challenge for health research is to understand the complex interactions among genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors including dietary intake. Unfortunately, such initiatives are hampered by the lack of accurate dietary intake assessment methods for large studies. The newly emerging field of metabolomics offers unique possibilities to characterize individual food intake, dietary patterns and effects of dietary intervention in large studies. The investigators propose to develop a platform to detect broad metabolomic responses to food intake in controlled trials as well as to use targeted metabolomics approaches to characterize dietary intake in longitudinal studies. Our laboratory has a long history of developing methodology for assessing nutritional status and effects of diet on metabolism. Here, the investigators team up with the Sahlgrenska Academy Core Facility and the Swedish NMR Centre at the University of Gothenburg, that offer modern metabolomics equipment and competence in bioinformatics, and use this in the context of nutrition research. To their knowledge, the investigators are among the first groups in the country to develop skills in metabolomics to assess dietary intake and effects of nutrition on metabolism, and probably the first to use two complementary platforms with both mass-spectrometry and nuclear magnetic spectroscopy. Hence, our methodological results should be useful to nutritional scientists nationally as well as internationally.

Official Title
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Nutritional Metabolomics: the Search for Dietary Exposure Variables 2

Conditions
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Healthy

Participation Criteria
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Eligibility Criteria
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Inclusion Criteria: Healthy Body mass index 18.0-30.0, age 18-65 yrs Exclusion Criteria: Regular Medication or tobacco use Pregnancy or lactating

Ages Eligible for Study
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Minimum Age: 18 Years
Maximum Age: 65 Years

Sexes Eligible for Study
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All

Accepts Healthy Volunteers
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Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Study Plan
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How is the study designed?
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Arms and Interventions

| Participant Group/Arm | Intervention/Treatment |
| --- | --- |
| Omnivores<br>No intervention, habitual diet | |
| Vegetarians<br>No intervention, habitual diet | |
| Vegans<br>No intervention, habitual diet | |
| Vegetarians consuming fish<br>No intervention, habitual diet | |

What is the study measuring?
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Primary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Metabolomic patterns that reflect habitual diet | Long-time vegans, vegetarians and omnivores will be asked to donate a fasting blood sample at one occasion, in the early morning. This blood sample will be analyzed, using nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and mass spectrometry (MS) techniques to reveal all metabolites. Patterns among these metabolites will be distinguished using the statistical techniques principal component analysis and discriminant analysis. | Fasting blood sample in the morning at one occasion | 

Secondary Outcome Measures

| Outcome Measure | Measure Description | Time Frame |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Discriminating vegan-, vegetarian- and omnivorous diets by hair isotopic analysis | The same study group also was asked to donate 5-10 hairs of 2 cm closest to the scalp. These were analyzed using isotope ratios of 15N and 13C by IRMS, to see if also this method could discriminate between the groups | Hair samples in the morning at one occasion | 

 Terms related to the study
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Keywords Provided by Centre Hospitalier Valida
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vegetarian, vegan, omnivore, Habitual diet