Physiological and metabolic effects of healthy female aging on exhaled breath biomarkers

Healthy aging driven physio-metabolic events in females hold the key to complex in vivo mechanistic links and systemic cross talks. Effects from basic changes at genome, proteome, metabolome, and lipidome levels are often reflected at the upstream phenome (e.g., breath volatome) cascades. Here, we have analyzed exhaled volatile metabolites (measured via real time mass spectrometry based breathomics) data from 204 healthy females, aged between 07 and 80 years. Age related substance-specific differences were observed in breath biomarkers. Exhalation of blood-borne endogenous organosulfur, short-chain fatty acids, alcohols, aldehydes, alkene, ketones and exogenous nitriles, terpenes, and aromatics have denominated interplay between endocrine differences, energy homeostasis, systemic microbial diversity, oxidative stress, and lifestyle. Overall marker expressions were suppressed under daily oral contraception. Young homosexual/lesbian adults turned out as breathomic outliers. Previously proposed disease-specific breath biomarkers should be reevaluated upon aging effects. Breathomics offers a noninvasive window toward system-wide understanding and personalized monitoring of aging i.e., translatable to gerontology.