Leucine-rich diet alters the (1) H-NMRI serum metabolomic profile of tumour-bearing adult rats from offspring of mothers supplemented with this branched-chain amino acid

Abstract

Cancer-cachexia is a multifactorial chronic disease associated with high inflammation and loss of muscular and adipose tissues and affects 30% of cancer patients. A maternal diet with leucine could alter the inflammatory state and regulate protein synthesis positively, modulating the effects of cachexia. Metabolomic analyses are an important technique to value the effects of cachexia because of the identification of altered metabolites in serum samples and consequently evaluate the impacted metabolic pathways in these patients. Thus, we analysed the regulatory effects of maternal nutritional supplementation with leucine over the serum metabolic profile (using the 1H-NMR analysis) of the adult offspring rats bearing the Walker 256 tumour.The cachexia leads to a characteristic metabolic profile related to an increase in the glycolytic pathway, which is likely modulated by maternal leucine-rich diet that altered the 1H-NMRI serum metabolomic profile, improving the oxidative pathway.