Associations among amino acid, lipid, and glucose metabolic profiles in childhood obesity

Abstract

Background Plasma-free amino acid profiles have been reported to correlate with obesity and glucose metabolism, and have been studied as potentially useful biomarkers of lifestyle-related diseases affecting metabolism in adulthood. However, knowledge of these relationships is lacking in children, despite the growing public health problem posed by childhood obesity. The aim of this study was to assess whether plasma-free amino acid profiles can serve as useful biomarkers of lifestyle-related diseases in children with obesity. Methods This retrospective study used the medical records of 26 patients (15 male, 11 female) aged 9 or 10 years presenting with moderate to severe obesity and hyperlipidemia between April 2015 and March 2017. A degree of obesity of 30% or more was defined as moderate or severe. Amino acid levels were compared between obese children with and without impaired glucose tolerance using a t-test or Mann–Whitney U test. In addition, the influence of factors such as intima media thickness, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, amino acids, and homeostasis model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were analyzed pairwise using Pearson’s correlation or Spearman’s rank correlation. Results HOMA-IR was positively correlated with valine, leucine (Leu), isoleucine, phenylalanine, tryptophan, methionine, threonine, lysine, alanine, tyrosine, glutamate (Glu), proline, arginine, ornithine, total free amino acids (all P < 0.01), and aspartate ( P = 0.010). Moreover, blood uric acid levels were positively correlated with Leu ( P = 0.005) and Glu ( P = 0.019), and negatively correlated with serine, glycine, and asparagine ( P = 0.007, P = 0.003, and P = 0.013, respectively). Conclusions Amino acid profile reflects impaired glucose tolerance and hyperuricemia at an early stage of obesity. It is therefore a useful marker to inform early intervention in children with obesity, as in adults. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12887-019-1647-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Metabolomics analysis reveals altered metabolites in lean compared with obese adolescents and additional metabolic shifts associated with hyperinsulinaemia and insulin resistance in obese adolescents: a cross-sectional study

“…BCAAs are suggested to be predictive of future T2DM (Wang et al 2011 ), and are associated with poor metabolic health (Badoud et al 2014 ; Newgard et al 2009 ). Our findings that BCAAs are higher in obese adolescents with hyperinsulinaemia/IR are consistent with previous studies in adolescents showing higher BCAAs in obese compared with lean subjects (Butte et al 2015 ; Perng et al 2014 ; Short et al 2019 ) and positive associations between BCAAs and IR (even) after adjustment for BMI (Suzuki et al 2019 ; Tricò et al 2017 ; Zhang et al 2019 ). However, data on BCAAs and metabolic health in adolescents are inconsistent (Farook et al 2015 ; Michaliszyn et al 2012 ; Mihalik et al 2012 ; Wahl et al 2012 ).…”

Comparative Metagenomics Reveals Microbial Communities and Their Associated Functions in Two Types of Fuzhuan Brick Tea

“…The 10 most abundant enzyme functions were contributed from Pseudomonas including F1: histidine kinase, F2: DNA polymerase, F3: peptidylprolyl isomerase, F4: DNA helicase, F5: NADH:ubiquinone reductase (H+-translocating), F6: glutamine synthetase, F7: glutathione transferase, F8: DNA topoisomerase, F9: acetyl-CoA C-acetyltransferase, and F10: shikimate dehydrogenase in both FBT_H and FBT_S, especially for F6 and F10 functions. Shikimate dehydrogenase mainly promoted the biosynthesis of phenylalanine, tyrosine, and tryptophan, which can synthesize important neurotransmitters and hormones involved in glucose metabolism and lipid metabolism, and then regulated the blood sugar serum lipids of the human body ( Suzuki et al, 2019 ). It is known that glutamine synthetase can control the production of glutamine; interestingly, a literature reported that glutamine limitation can mitigate cancer ( Jiang et al, 2018 ).…”

Evaluation of Obesity and Related Factors in Secondary School Children

“…[17,18] Moreover, Suzuki et al found that BMI is negatively correlated with both LDL-cholesterol and total cholesterol levels in children. [19] In this study, LDLcholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were significantly higher in obese children than non-obese children. In addition, this study found a significant positive correlation between BMI and LDL-cholesterol, total cholesterol, and triglyceride levels.…”