Comparison of dimension reduction methods on fatty acids food source study

Yifan Chen,Masahiro Mizuta,Toshihiro Sakurai,Sota Kato,Hiroyuki Minami,Hitoshi Chiba,Emiko Okada,Shigekazu Ukawa,Takafumi Nakagawa,Zhen Chen,Akiko Tamakoshi,Yusuke Miura,Rojeet Shrestha,Hideyuki Imai,Koshi Nakamura,Shu-Ping Hui

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-97349-6

Abstract

Serum fatty acids (FAs) exist in the four lipid fractions of triglycerides (TGs), phospholipids (PLs), cholesteryl esters (CEs) and free fatty acids (FFAs). Total fatty acids (TFAs) indicate the sum of FAs in them. In this study, four statistical analysis methods, which are independent component analysis (ICA), factor analysis, common principal component analysis (CPCA) and principal component analysis (PCA), were conducted to uncover food sources of FAs among the four lipid fractions (CE, FFA, and TG + PL). Among the methods, ICA provided the most suggestive results. To distinguish the animal fat intake from endogenous fatty acids, FFA variables in ICA and factor analysis were studied. ICA provided more distinct suggestions of FA food sources (endogenous, plant oil intake, animal fat intake, and fish oil intake) than factor analysis. Moreover, ICA was discovered as a new approach to distinguish animal FAs from endogenous FAs, which will have an impact on epidemiological studies. In addition, the correlation coefficients between a published dataset of food FA compositions and the loading values obtained in the present ICA study suggested specific foods as serum FA sources. In conclusion, we found that ICA is a useful tool to uncover food sources of serum FAs.

Highlights

In blood, fatty acid (FA) are mainly transported in the esterified forms, such as triglycerides (TGs), phospholipids (PLs), and cholesteryl esters (CEs)
We compared the usefulness of four dimension reduction methods, including independent component analysis (ICA), common principal component analysis (CPCA), factor analysis, and PCA in an epidemiological study in Japan
In CPCA, TG + PL, free fatty acids (FFAs), and CE were combined as one set, which was denoted as FA

Summary

Introduction

In blood, FAs are mainly transported in the esterified forms, such as triglycerides (TGs), phospholipids (PLs), and cholesteryl esters (CEs). On the other hand, esterified FAs reside in plasma lipoproteins, namely, chylomicrons, very-low-density lipoproteins (VLDLs), low-density lipoproteins (LDLs), and high-density lipoproteins (HDLs) These lipoproteins have distinctive metabolic rates and pathways that can be fluctuated by various factors including physical activity, nutrition, and metabolic conditions. Only limited information of the use of dimension reduction methods in a large-scale human serum study is available, while principal component analysis (PCA) and factor analysis were reported[26]. We compared the usefulness of four dimension reduction methods, including independent component analysis (ICA), common principal component analysis (CPCA), factor analysis, and PCA in an epidemiological study in Japan. We combined the data of all lipid fractions (CE, FFA, and TG + PL) into a single dataset and studied the relationship between FAs and dietary sources

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion