Abstract
BackgroundRecently, the association of plasma free amino acid (PFAA) profile and lifestyle-related diseases has been reported. However, few studies have been reported in large Asian populations, about the usefulness of PFAAs for evaluating disease risks. We examined the ability of PFAA profiles to evaluate lifestyle-related diseases in so far the largest Asian population.MethodsWe examined plasma concentrations of 19 amino acids in 8589 Japanese subjects, and determined the association with variables associated with obesity, blood glucose, lipid, and blood pressure. We also evaluated the PFAA indexes that reflect visceral fat obesity and insulin resistance. The contribution of single PFAA level and relevant PFAA indexes was also examined in the risk assessment of lifestyle-related diseases.ResultsOf the 19 amino acids, branched-chain amino acids and aromatic amino acids showed association with obesity and lipid variables. The PFAA index related to visceral fat obesity showed relatively higher correlation with variables than that of any PFAA. In the evaluation of lifestyle-related disease risks, the odds ratios of the PFAA index related to visceral fat obesity or insulin resistance with the diseases were higher than most of those of individual amino acid levels even after adjusting for potential confounding factors. The association pattern of the indexes and PFAA with each lifestyle-related disease was distinct.ConclusionsWe confirmed the usefulness of PFAA profiles and indexes as markers for evaluating the risks of lifestyle-related diseases, including diabetes mellitus, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, and hypertension in a large Asian population.
Highlights
The association of plasma free amino acid (PFAA) profile and lifestyle-related diseases has been reported
We previously reported the construction of PFAA index 1 and index 2, which evaluated visceral fat area (VFA) and insulin resistance, respectively, and revealed their association with variables of lifestyle-related diseases and usefulness of such indexes for predicting the future risk of developing the diseases including metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus (DM), dyslipidemia, and hypertension [12]
Association between PFAAs and lifestyle related diseases We examined the relationships of the PFAA profiles to lifestyle-related diseases to determine whether each PFAA index and single PFAA concentration were related to DM, metabolic syndrome, dyslipidemia, and hypertension
Summary
The association of plasma free amino acid (PFAA) profile and lifestyle-related diseases has been reported. PFAA profile was reported to be useful for identifying diabetic patients at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases [10, 11] These reports suggested that changes of amino acid metabolism play important roles in the pathogenesis of lifestyle-related diseases, the number of subjects in those studies was limited. We previously reported the construction of PFAA index 1 and index 2, which evaluated visceral fat area (VFA) and insulin resistance, respectively, and revealed their association with variables of lifestyle-related diseases and usefulness of such indexes for predicting the future risk of developing the diseases including metabolic syndrome, DM, dyslipidemia, and hypertension [12]. It is necessary to confirm the capabilities of the PFAA indexes to evaluate the risk of lifestylerelated diseases in a large Japanese population
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