Dominant components of the Thoroughbred metabolome characterised by (1) H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy: A metabolite atlas of common biofluids.
Authors: Escalona E E, Leng J, Dona A C, Merrifield C A, Holmes E, Proudman C J, Swann J R
Journal: Equine veterinary journal
Summary
# Editorial Summary Researchers used nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to characterise the normal metabolic profiles of plasma, urine and faecal water from seven Thoroughbreds in race training, identifying a total of 102 distinct metabolites across these three biofluids. A core group of 14 metabolites appeared consistently across all samples, whilst each biofluid revealed different metabolic information: urine contained the most metabolites (65), including 39 unique compounds largely related to gut microbial activity, whereas faecal samples showed the greatest individual variation, with acetate accounting for 28% of this difference and short-chain fatty acids dominating the metabolic profile. This foundational metabolic atlas establishes a reference framework for future metabonomic research in horses, demonstrating that urine represents the most practical biofluid for routine metabolomic screening given its non-invasive collection, metabolic richness and relative consistency between animals. For equine practitioners, these findings suggest that urinary metabolomic analysis could become a valuable diagnostic and monitoring tool, particularly for detecting host–microbiota interactions and identifying metabolic markers of health and disease without the variability seen in faecal samples or the practical limitations of plasma collection. This work opens the door to using sophisticated metabolic profiling as part of comprehensive health assessment and performance management in racehorses.
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Practical Takeaways
- •Urine is the most appropriate biofluid for metabonomic analysis in horses due to minimal invasiveness and balanced representation of host-microbial metabolites compared to faecal or plasma sampling
- •This metabolite reference atlas enables future identification of disease biomarkers by providing a baseline profile of normal equine metabolism across different biological compartments
- •Gut microbial metabolite signatures are substantially represented in urine, offering a non-invasive window into equine microbiome function relevant to digestive health monitoring
Key Findings
- •102 metabolites were identified across plasma, urine, and faecal water samples from healthy Thoroughbreds using ¹H-NMR spectroscopy
- •A core metabonome of 14 metabolites was present across all three biofluids
- •Urine was the most populated metabolite matrix with 65 identified metabolites, 39 of which were unique to this biofluid and related to gut microbial host cometabolism
- •Acetate accounted for 28% of metabolic variation in faecal samples, with short-chain fatty acids being predominant features