Comparison of fecal and blood metabolome reveals inconsistent associations of the gut microbiota with cardiometabolic diseases

Blood metabolome is commonly used in human studies to explore the associations of gut microbiota-derived metabolites with cardiometabolic diseases. Here, in a cohort of 1007 middle-aged and elderly adults with matched fecal metagenomic (149 species and 214 pathways) and paired fecal and blood targeted metabolomics data (132 metabolites), we find disparate associations with taxonomic composition and microbial pathways when using fecal or blood metabolites. For example, we observe that fecal, but not blood butyric acid significantly associates with both gut microbiota and prevalent type 2 diabetes. These findings are replicated in an independent validation cohort involving 103 adults. Our results suggest that caution should be taken when inferring microbiome-cardiometabolic disease associations from either blood or fecal metabolome data. Here, analyzing paired fecal and blood metabolomics and metagenomics data in a large cohort, Deng et al. uncover disparate associations of the gut microbiota with cardiometabolic diseases when utilizing either fecal or blood metabolome data, suggesting that sampling criteria may be a relevant factor in metabolomics-based association studies.