1601-P: Childhood Plasma Amino Acid Profiles Predict the 10-Year Risk of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease—The BCAMS Study

Abstract

Background and Aims: Amino acid profiles have been proved a promising tool to identify novel biomarkers and insight of the mechanisms of metabolic diseases; however, date on youth was still limited, particularly nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). We aimed to prospectively investigate if there exist any association between childhood plasma amino acid profiles and adulthood NAFLD, and explore the early predictor and the underlying mechanism for the development of hepatic steatosis. Methods: A total of 307 subjects aged 12.1±3.0 years at baseline were enrolled in this study at 10-year follow-up, recruited from the Beijing Child and Adolescent Metabolic Syndrome (BCAMS) study cohort, including 99 NAFLD patients and 208 normal controls. Thirty-two amino acids (AAs) in fasting plasma at baseline were evaluated by liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometry. NAFLD was diagnosed by abdominal ultrasonography at follow-up. Results: Among the 32 qualified AAs, 14 AAs showed significant differences (p<0.05) between NAFLD and normal controls, including four AAs survived Bonferroni correction (p<0.0016). Adjustment for age, gender and lifestyle factors, there were 10 AAs remain significant, including alanine, asparagine, glutamine, glycine, isoleucine, tyrosine, serine and threonine etc. Further adjustment for BMI, lower levels of asparagine (OR: 0.62, 95% CI: 0.44-0.87), glutamine (OR: 0.73, 95% CI: 0.53-0.99) and serine (OR: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.51-0.98) remain significant predictors of NAFLD at the 10-year follow-up. Conclusion: Plasma amino acid profiles in childhood can predict risk of NAFLD in young adults. Plasma asparagine, glutamine and serine are likely to be early predictors of NAFLD independently of adiposity. Disclosure M.Li: None. S.Gao: None. Bcams group: n/a. Funding National High Level Hospital Clinical Research Funding (2022-PUMCH-C-014); National Natural Science Foundation of China (81970732, 82270924); Capital's Funds for Health Improvement and Research (2020-2Z-40117); CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (C