Association of serum metabolites with impaired fasting glucose/diabetes and traditional risk factors for metabolic disease in Chinese adults

Abstract

Background: Hyperglycemia has become a major health problem worldwide. We investigated the associations of serum metabolite levels with hyperglycemia (impaired fasting glucose/diabetes) and traditional risk factors for metabolic disease.

Methods: A total of 563 Chinese adults were categorized into hyperglycemia and control groups. Associations of serum metabolites, including branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), aromatic amino acids (AAAs), glutamine (Gln), glutamic acid (Glu), Gln/Glu ratio, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), with hyperglycemia and traditional risk factors of metabolic disease were investigated using our targeted metabolomics method.

Results: Participants with impaired fasting glucose or diabetes exhibited markedly lower levels of Gln/Glu and unsaturated LPC and higher levels of Glu and BCAAs. Gln/Glu ratio, unsaturated LPC, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D were positively correlated with protective factors, while saturated LPC, BCAAs, AAAs, and Glu revealed close correlations with traditional risk factors. In the logistic regression, low Gln/Glu ratio and high BCAA level were independent risk factors for hyperglycemia; the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of the highest quartile compared with the lowest quartile were 0.499 (0.274-0.910) and 2.588 (1.313-5.102) (P < 0.05), respectively.

Conclusions: Gln/Glu ratio, BCAAs, and LPC were significantly related to hyperglycemia development and risk factors for metabolic disease.

Keywords: Diabetes; Hyperglycemia; Impaired fasting glucose; Metabolite; Metabolomics.