Abstract: Objective To find the differential metabolites in children with sepsis by analyzing the levels of serum metabolites.Methods Serum samples were collected in 24h after admission from 37 children with early sepsis as the observation group, who were hospitalized in Zhongshan Boai Hospital from October 2019 to November 2021,and 38 healthy children were enrolled as the control group during the same period. The levels of 11 kinds of amino acids and 31 kinds of acylcarnitine in plasma were detected and the differences in serum metabolites were compared between two groups.Results Principal component analysis(PCA) and orthogonal partial least squares diseriminant analysis(OPLS-DA) showed that there was significantly different metabolic profiling of plasma amino acids and acylcarnitine between observation group and control group; in the analysis of amino acid, the levels of phenylalanine, valine, leucine and glycine were significantly increased; in the analysis of acylcarnitine, the levels of butyrylcarnitine and isovalerylcarnitine were significantly increased， while the levels of l-carnitine, myristoylcarnitine, palmitoylcarnitine, hexadecenoyl carnitine,octadecanoylcarnitine,octadecaenoylcarnitine and octadecadienoylcarnitine were significantly decreased.Conclusion The differences in serum metabolites in children with sepsis is mainly associated with metabolic disorders, and there may be mitochondrial dysfunction, which can be used as biomarkers of sepsis in children.

Key words:

Sepsis, Metabolomics, Children