TY - JOUR

T1 - Human beings as islands of stability

T2 - Monitoring body states using breath profiles

AU - Maiti, Kiran Sankar

AU - Lewton, Michael

AU - Fill, Ernst

AU - Apolonski, Alexander

PY - 2019/11/7

Y1 - 2019/11/7

N2 - By checking the reproducibility of conventional mid-infrared Fourier spectroscopy of human breath in a small test study (15 individuals), we found that a set of volatile organic compounds (VOC) of the individual breath samples remains reproducible at least for 18 months. This set forms a unique individual’s “island of stability” (IOS) in a multidimensional VOC concentration space. The IOS stability can simultaneously be affected by various life effects as well as the onset of a disease. Reflecting the body state, they both should have different characteristics. Namely, they could be distinguished by different temporal profiles: In the case of life effects (beverage intake, physical or mental exercises, smoking etc.), there is a non-monotonic shift of the IOS position with the return to the steady state, whereas a progressing disease corresponds to a monotonic IOS shift. As a first step of proving these dependencies, we studied various life effects with the focus on the strength and characteristic time of the IOS shift. In general, our results support homeostasis on a long time scale of months, allostasis on scales of hours to weeks or until smoke quitting for smokers, as well as resilience in the case of recovery from a disease.

AB - By checking the reproducibility of conventional mid-infrared Fourier spectroscopy of human breath in a small test study (15 individuals), we found that a set of volatile organic compounds (VOC) of the individual breath samples remains reproducible at least for 18 months. This set forms a unique individual’s “island of stability” (IOS) in a multidimensional VOC concentration space. The IOS stability can simultaneously be affected by various life effects as well as the onset of a disease. Reflecting the body state, they both should have different characteristics. Namely, they could be distinguished by different temporal profiles: In the case of life effects (beverage intake, physical or mental exercises, smoking etc.), there is a non-monotonic shift of the IOS position with the return to the steady state, whereas a progressing disease corresponds to a monotonic IOS shift. As a first step of proving these dependencies, we studied various life effects with the focus on the strength and characteristic time of the IOS shift. In general, our results support homeostasis on a long time scale of months, allostasis on scales of hours to weeks or until smoke quitting for smokers, as well as resilience in the case of recovery from a disease.

KW - VOLATILE ORGANIC-COMPOUNDS

KW - METABOLIC PHENOTYPES

KW - METHANE EXCRETION

KW - CARBON-MONOXIDE

KW - EXHALED BREATH

KW - BIOMARKERS

KW - DIAGNOSIS

KW - EXERCISE

KW - SMOKING

KW - ACETONE

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85074686406&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s41598-019-51417-0

DO - 10.1038/s41598-019-51417-0

M3 - Article

C2 - 31700057

AN - SCOPUS:85074686406

VL - 9

JO - Scientific Reports

JF - Scientific Reports

SN - 2045-2322

IS - 1

M1 - 16167

ER -