Eccrine sweat reveals normalization of artificial sweetener levels in children with overweight after nutritional education

Determining metabolic parameters associated with childhood obesity is challenging due to the invasive nature of most sampling methods. Using a non-invasive eccrine sweat collection, 134 metabolomes were obtained from 54 children, of which 20% had overweight, including obesity. This cohort is part of the preventive EDDY program aiming to promote healthy lifestyles in school-aged children from Vienna, Austria. The abundance of the artificial sweetener cyclamate in eccrine sweat correlated with body mass index in the overweight group at baseline. Cyclamate was also found to be elevated in the overweight group at baseline compared to the normal weight group, but normalized after the intervention, indicating a positive impact of the EDDY program. Furthermore, dynamic changes in metabolites originating from the gut microbiome were observed. Sweat metabotyping thus represents a valuable approach to accessing metabolic parameters in children in the context of overweight and obesity and promises broad applicability in pediatric research.