Comprehensive Metabolomic and Lipidomic Analysis Reveals Metabolic Changes After Mindfulness Training

Mindfulness is a subtype of meditation. Increasing evidence suggests that trainers benefit mental and physical health improvement, but the mechanism and molecular changes of mindfulness have not been elucidated. We aim to find the metabolomic and lipidomic changes in serum after mindfulness trainings and to study how mindfulness affect body metabolism.

We performed liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry-based metabolomics and lipidomics to systematically analyze the changed metabolites after mindfulness trainings. Participants (n = 27) who joined a 5-day intensive mindfulness training retreat and participants (n = 14) who joined a 5-day mindfulness training retreat in dark ambiance were recruited in the study. Serum samples of each trainer before and after mindfulness training were collected and analyzed. Statistical analysis and bioinformatics were carried out by MetaboAnalyst web service.

Statistical analysis revealed that 22 metabolites were dysregulated in serum after mindfulness trainings. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that several metabolic pathways were significantly perturbed, such as arginine and proline metabolism, nitrogen metabolism, and histidine metabolism. Lipidomic analysis revealed 378 dysregulated lipids totally in two mindfulness trainings. Among these lipids, most of the lipid species showed trends of upregulation, such as Cer, PC, PE, LPC, LPE, and TAG, while a few lipid species showed trends of downregulation, such as SM, OxFA, and OxPC.

Our study highlights a comprehensive view of metabolic and lipidomic changes related to mindfulness trainings, providing clues on influence of mindfulness meditation on body metabolism.