The Systemic Metabolic Profile Early after Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplantation: Effects of Adequate Energy Support Administered through Enteral Feeding Tube

Patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation usually require nutritional support. There is no consensus on whether enteral support through tube feeding should be preferred. A recent randomized study could not detect any difference between enteral and parenteral feeding with regard to post-transplant outcomes, whereas 2 retrospective studies described an association between enteral feeding and a favorable post-transplant outcome. We compared pre- and post-transplant plasma metabolomic profiles for 10 patients receiving mainly enteral nutritional support and 10 patients receiving mainly parenteral support. Samples were collected before conditioning and 3 weeks post-transplant; 824 metabolites were analyzed using mass spectrometry. The pretransplant metabolite profiles showed a significant overlap between the 2 groups. Post-transplant samples for both patient groups showed an increase of secondary bile acids and endocannabinoids, whereas reduced levels were seen for food preservatives, plasmalogens, and retinol metabolites. The main post-transplant differences between the groups were decreased levels of fatty acids and markers of mitochondrial activation in the control group, indicating that these patients had insufficient energy intake. A significant effect was also seen for heme/bilirubin metabolism for the parenteral support. To conclude, allotransplant recipients showed altered metabolic profiles early after transplantation; this was mainly due to the conditioning/transplantation/reconstitution, whereas the type of nutritional support had minor effects.