Plasma lipidomics of primary biliary cholangitis and its comparison with Sjögren's syndrome

Haolong Li; Haoting Zhan; Linlin Cheng; Yuan Huang; Xiaomeng Li; Songxin Yan; Yongmei Liu; Li Wang; Yongzhe Li

doi:10.3389/fimmu.2023.1124443

Plasma lipidomics of primary biliary cholangitis and its comparison with Sjögren's syndrome

Front Immunol. 2023 May 5:14:1124443. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1124443. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Haolong Li¹, Haoting Zhan¹, Linlin Cheng¹, Yuan Huang¹, Xiaomeng Li¹, Songxin Yan¹, Yongmei Liu¹, Li Wang², Yongzhe Li¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Laboratory, State Key Laboratory of Complex Severe and Rare Diseases, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.
² Department of Rheumatology, National Clinical Research Center for Dermatologic and Immunologic Diseases (NCRC-DID), Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China.

Abstract

Background: Abnormal lipid metabolism is common in patients with primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). PBC and Sjögren's syndrome (SS) frequently coexist in clinical practice; however, the lipid characteristics of both diseases are unknown. Therefore, we aimed to analyze the plasma lipid profiles of both diseases.

Methods: Plasma samples from 60 PBC patients, 30 SS patients, and 30 healthy controls (HC) were collected, and untargeted lipidomics was performed using ultrahigh-performance liquid chromatography high-resolution mass spectrometry. Potential lipid biomarkers were screened through an orthogonal projection to latent structure discriminant analysis and further evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.

Results: A total of 115 lipids were differentially upregulated in PBC patients compared with HC. Seventeen lipids were positively associated with the disease activity of PBC, and ROC analysis showed that all of these lipids could differentiate between ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA) responders and UDCA non-responders. The top six lipids based on the area under the curve (AUC) values were glycerophosphocholine (PC) (16:0/16:0), PC (18:1/18:1), PC (42:2), PC (16:0/18:1), PC (17:1/14:0), and PC (15:0/18:1). In comparison with SS, 44 lipids were found to be differentially upregulated in PBC. Additionally, eight lipids were found to have a good diagnostic performance of PBC because of the AUC values of more than 0.9 when identified from SS and HC groups, which were lysophosphatidylcholines (LysoPC) (16:1), PC (16:0/16:0), PC (16:0/16:1), PC (16:1/20:4), PC (18:0/20:3), PC (18:1/20:2), PC (20:0/22:5), and PC (20:1/22:5).

Conclusion: Our study revealed differentially expressed lipid signatures in PBC compared with HC and SS. PC is the main lipid species associated with disease activity and the UDCA response in patients with PBC.

Keywords: Sjögren’s syndrome; lipidomics; plasma; primary biliary cholangitis; ursodeoxycholic acid.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Humans
Lipidomics
Lipids
Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary* / complications
Liver Cirrhosis, Biliary* / diagnosis
Sjogren's Syndrome* / complications
Ursodeoxycholic Acid / therapeutic use

Substances

Ursodeoxycholic Acid
Lipids

Associated data

figshare/10.6084/m9.figshare.22590472.v1

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFE0207300) and the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission (Z211100002521021).