Abstract
Overweight and obesity have high prevalence worldwide and assessing the metabolomic profile is a useful approach to study their related metabolic processes. In this study, we assessed the metabolomic profile of 1391 subjects affected by overweight and obesity, enrolled in the frame of the SPHERE study, using a validated LC–MS/MS targeted metabolomic approach determining a total of 188 endogenous metabolites. Multivariable censored linear regression Tobit models, correcting for age, sex, and smoking habits, showed that 83 metabolites were significantly influenced by body mass index (BMI). Among compounds with the highest association, aromatic and branched chain amino acids (in particular tyrosine, valine, isoleucine, and phenylalanine) increased with the increment of BMI, while some glycerophospholipids decreased, in particular some lysophosphatidylcholines (as lysoPC a C18:2) and several acylalkylphosphatidylcholines (as PC ae C36:2, PC ae C34:3, PC ae C34:2, and PC ae C40:6). The results of this investigation show that several endogenous metabolites are influenced by BMI, confirming the evidence with the strength of a large number of subjects, highlighting differences among subjects with different classes of obesity and showing unreported associations between BMI and different phosphatidylcholines.
Highlights
Published: 24 March 2021Overweight and obesity are defined as an excessive fat accumulation able to impair human health
To investigate the metabolic processes related to obesity, an approach could be the study of the metabolome, which is the ensemble of all the small molecules present in a biological fluid generated from the multitude of metabolic reactions of an organism [3]
In this work we described the application of a targeted metabolomic approach to a large cohort of subjects affected by overweight and obesity with the aim of describing their metabolomic profile
Summary
Overweight and obesity are defined as an excessive fat accumulation able to impair human health. These problematic conditions have been almost tripled in the last decades and they are currently one of the most relevant global public heath burdens and major risk factors for noncommunicable disease such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal disorders, and some forms of cancer [1]. To investigate the metabolic processes related to obesity, an approach could be the study of the metabolome, which is the ensemble of all the small molecules present in a biological fluid generated from the multitude of metabolic reactions of an organism [3]. It is not a perfect measure of a person’s fat accumulation, since it does not take into account the difference between body fat and lean body mass, it is easy to obtain and it is widely applied in both clinical evaluations and epidemiological studies to categorize an individual in one of the following groups: underweight (BMI below 18.5 kg/m2 ), normal weight (18.5–24.9), overweight (25.0–29.9), class I obesity (30.0–34.9), class II obesity (35.0–39.9), and class III obesity (above 40) [2].
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