Metabonomics and Gut Microbial Paradigm in Healthy Aging

Metabonomics, aiming to characterize the pattern of low molecular weight metabolites participating in metabolic pathways, is a valuable tool to detect changes in metabolic regulation and subsequently link them to the health outcome, emerging as a powerful technology to capture the complexity of human aging. The growing interest of the research community in this field is demonstrated by a large number of recently published researches, here summarized, that aim to associate complex metabolic regulations with age-related biological processes. The involvement of the gut microbiota, our “forgotten organ” with its impressive metabolic capability, is a natural extension of this interest, even if still largely unexplored. In this chapter, we aim to summarize the potential of metabonomics in exploring the impact of the combined metabolism of human host and gut microbiota on aging, as well as on the health outcome of age-related processes and the probability to attain longevity.