Metabolome-wide Association Study of Bronchopulmonary Dysplasia in Extremely Premature Infants

In 314 extremely preterm infants (<29 weeks gestational age), bronchopulmonary dysplasia is linked to lower urinary levels of multiple metabolites, with 68 nominal associations at postnatal days 23–32.

• Why it matters: BPD is poorly understood, and metabolome-wide, time-resolved urinary profiling may reveal pathways tied to disease risk during early postnatal development.
• What they did: Untargeted urinary metabolomics quantified 913 metabolites at two time points (postnatal days 5–15 and 23–32), comparing BPD vs no BPD at 36 weeks postmenstrual age using logistic regression, pathway enrichment, and nutrition-stratified analyses.
• The result: Enriched pathways included lactoyl amino acid sub-pathway (p=0.005, q=0.4) and xanthine plus fatty acid metabolism (p≤0.002, q<0.1); most BPD-differential metabolites were lower at days 23–32 (OR=7.1, p=2x10-6), including 24 vitamin-related metabolites lower on parenteral nutrition.

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