Abstract
Obesity is a typical metabolic disorder resulting from the imbalance between energy intake and expenditure. American Indians suffer disproportionately high rates of obesity and diabetes. The goal of this study is to identify metabolic profiles of obesity in 431 normoglycemic American Indians participating in the Strong Heart Family Study. Using an untargeted liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, we detected 1,364 distinct m/z features matched to known compounds in the current metabolomics databases. We conducted multivariate analysis to identify metabolic profiles for obesity, adjusting for standard obesity indicators. After adjusting for covariates and multiple testing, five metabolites were associated with body mass index and seven were associated with waist circumference. Of them, three were associated with both. Majority of the obesity-related metabolites belongs to lipids, e.g., fatty amides, sphingolipids, prenol lipids, and steroid derivatives. Other identified metabolites are amino acids or peptides. Of the nine identified metabolites, five metabolites (oleoylethanolamide, mannosyl-diinositol-phosphorylceramide, pristanic acid, glutamate, and kynurenine) have been previously implicated in obesity or its related pathways. Future studies are warranted to replicate these findings in larger populations or other ethnic groups.
Highlights
Overweight and obesity have become global epidemics [1]
There were no significant differences between the three groups in smoking, drinking, or dietary intake of total daily calories, protein or fat
Five metabolites were significantly associated with body mass index (BMI) and seven were significantly associated with waist circumference
Summary
Overweight and obesity have become global epidemics [1]. A comprehensive understanding of its metabolic pathways is critical for developing effective preventive and therapeutic strategies against obesity and its related conditions. Metabolic Profiles of Obesity in American Indians. Dr Qi Zhao is a Tulane University Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health (BIRCWH) scholar supported by Award K12HD043451 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institute of Health. The funder provided support in the form of salaries for authors [QZ, YZ, LGB, JGU, KU, VTT, DPJ, ETL, BVH, and JZ], but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific roles of these authors are articulated in the ‘author contributions’ section
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
