Genetic and Environmental Contributions to Variation in the Stable Urinary NMR Metabolome over Time: A Classic Twin Study

Genes, sex, age, diet, lifestyle, gut microbiome, and multiple other factors affect human metabolomic profiles. Understanding metabolomic variation is critical in human nutrition research as metabolites that are sensitive to change versus those that are more stable might be more informative for a particular study design. This study aims to identify stable metabolomic regions and determine the genetic and environmental contributions to stability. Using a classic twin design, 1H nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) urinary metabolomic profiles were measured in 128 twins at baseline, 1 month, and 2 months. Multivariate mixed models identified stable urinary metabolites with intraclass correlation coefficients ≥0.51. Longitudinal twin modeling measured the contribution of genetic and environmental influences to variation in the stable urinary NMR metabolome, comprising stable metabolites. The conservation of an individual’s stable urinary NMR metabolome over time was assessed by calculating conservation indices. In this study, 20% of the urinary NMR metabolome is stable over 2 months (intraclass correlation (ICC) 0.51–0.65). Common genetic and shared environmental factors contributed to variance in the stable urinary NMR metabolome over time. Using the stable metabolome, 91% of individuals had good metabolomic conservation indices ≥0.70. To conclude, this research identifies 20% of the urinary NMR metabolome as stable, improves our knowledge of the sources of metabolomic variation over time, and demonstrates the conservation of an individual’s urinary NMR metabolome.