Pectin supplementation did not alter profiles of exhaled breath in young adults and elderly

Pectin supplementation did not alter profiles of exhaled breath in young adults and elderly

A. Smolinska¹, E. Wilms², D. Jonkers², F J Troost², FJ van Schooten¹ 

1. Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University, 6229 ER Maastricht, The Netherlands

2. Division Gastroenterology-Hepatology, Department of Internal Medicine, NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism, Maastricht University Medical Centre+, 6202 AZ Maastricht, The Netherlands

Full Poster: 

http://ow.ly/2CSY30pU3fH

Abstract:

Since ancient times, physicians valued human breath as a window of diseased and healthy organs. Thousands of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are produced in different organs which are transported by blood to the lungs where they are released. Inflammatory and deviant metabolic processes change the composition of these compounds which can be of use for clinical diagnosis and disease monitoring. Many VOCs are also produced by intestinal microbiota. Some of these compounds are excreted into feces while others enter the systemic circulation where they can be further modified by the host. Exhaled breath analysis has been demonstrated for disease monitoring and diagnosis but also for investigating effect of various diet. In the current study, exhaled breath was used to monitor effect of prebiotics. In the study, 52 young adults and 48 elderly consumed 15g/day sugar beet pectin or maltodextrin for four weeks. Before and after the intervention period exhaled breath samples were collected. The group of individuals receiving maltodextrin was considered as placebo. Exhaled breath samples were analysed by Gas Chromatography coupled with Mass Spectrometry analysis. Different machine learning technique were used to find differences in volatile compounds. The statistical analysis revealed that pectin intervention did not significantly alter the content of exhaled breath in young adults and elderly. In both groups, the tree-based technique has led to classification model with prediction performance of random classifier. Moreover, the statistical analysis using a set of 15 volatile compounds, to determine differences in exhaled breath between young adults and elderly, showed an AUROC of 0.70 with sensitivity and specificity of 0.6 and 0.58 in the validation set, indicating relatively small differences in exhaled breath profiles. The current study showed that following four weeks of pectin implementation did not affect the content of exhaled breath.

Join us at the next Breath Biopsy Conference