Metabolite profiling identifies pathways associated with metabolic risk in humans.

Circulation
Authors
Keywords
Abstract

BACKGROUND: Although metabolic risk factors are known to cluster in individuals who are prone to developing diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease, the underlying biological mechanisms remain poorly understood.

METHODS AND RESULTS: To identify pathways associated with cardiometabolic risk, we used liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry to determine the plasma concentrations of 45 distinct metabolites and to examine their relation to cardiometabolic risk in the Framingham Heart Study (FHS; n=1015) and the Malmö Diet and Cancer Study (MDC; n=746). We then interrogated significant findings in experimental models of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. We observed that metabolic risk factors (obesity, insulin resistance, high blood pressure, and dyslipidemia) were associated with multiple metabolites, including branched-chain amino acids, other hydrophobic amino acids, tryptophan breakdown products, and nucleotide metabolites. We observed strong associations of insulin resistance traits with glutamine (standardized regression coefficients, -0.04 to -0.22 per 1-SD change in log-glutamine; P

CONCLUSIONS: Biochemical profiling identified circulating metabolites not previously associated with metabolic traits. Experimentally interrogating one of these pathways demonstrated that excess glutamine relative to glutamate, resulting from exogenous administration, is associated with reduced metabolic risk in mice.

Year of Publication
2012
Journal
Circulation
Volume
125
Issue
18
Pages
2222-31
Date Published
2012 May 08
ISSN
1524-4539
URL
DOI
10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.111.067827
PubMed ID
22496159
PubMed Central ID
PMC3376658
Links
Grant list
N01-HC-25195 / HC / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
R01-DK-HL081572 / DK / NIDDK NIH HHS / United States
R01 DK081572 / DK / NIDDK NIH HHS / United States
R01 HL081572 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
K23 HL091106 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
N01HC25195 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
K99 HL107642 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States