Metabolomic study of urine samples in ALSPAC study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Metabolomic study of urine samples in ALSPAC study
IRAS ID
214838
Contact name
Susan Ring
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Bristol
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
This study will measure a large number of chemicals, such as sugars and fats, known as metabolomic markers, in urine samples collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort participants at 17 years of age. ALSPAC is a longitudinal cohort study that recruited 14,500 pregnant women between 1991 and 1992. The children arising from the pregnancies and their family members have been followed up since that time and an extensive amount of biological material and data is available for the study. The study is also known as the Children of the 90s study. Samples have been collected throughout the participants’ lives and have been used in many studies to generate large amounts data which helps us to determine what environmental factors the participants have been exposed to and how well their bodies are functioning. This includes genetic information from the participants DNA and chemical markers in blood and urineSamples
The samples and data form a resource for the scientific community and all data generated from samples must be returned to ALSPAC for inclusion in the data resource and will be made available to other researchers.
For this project Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) metabolic profiling will be applied to the urine samples from ALSPAC participants at time point age 17 years (for which there is also genomic information and serum metabolite profiling information available). The urine samples were collected from the study participants at a research clinic when they were 17 years old (Focus 17+). At the time of collection samples were included in the National Chlamydia Screening Programme but participants were also asked to provide consent for their samples to be stored for future research projects.
The metabolomics data produced will serve as the first pilot to understand the population level variation and distributions of urine metabolite concentrations and to inform about the epidemiological potential of quantitative urine metabolomics.
Lay summary of study results: This study planned to measure a large number of chemicals, such as sugars and fats, known as metabolomic markers, in existing urine samples collected from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort participants at 17 years of age. The samples are linked to a large amount of data collected from the participants and their families over a period of over 30 years. They are therefore unique and a very valuable resource. No new sample collection was required.The methodology to analyse the samples was being developed by the NMR Metabolomics Facility at the University of Bristol in collaboration with Nightingale Health at no charge to the researchers. This was a project that was to run in parallel with the normal work of the facility.
Unfortunatly due to time commitments, closure periods and reprioritisation of work during the COVID-19 pandemic the methodology was not developed sufficiently to permit use of the unique ALSPAC samples.Therfore this particular project with ALSPAC was abandoned and samples were retained by the ALSPAC tissue bank in order that they can be used for other research.
REC name
London - Queen Square Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/LO/2257
Date of REC Opinion
21 Dec 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion