Circulating glutamate concentration as a biomarker of visceral obesity and associated metabolic alterations
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(2018) 15:78
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Circulating glutamate concentration as a biomarker of visceral obesity and associated metabolic alterations Ina Maltais-Payette1,2, Marie-Michèle Boulet3, Cornelia Prehn4, Jerzy Adamski4 and André Tchernof1,2*
Abstract Background: Visceral adipose tissue (VAT) area is a strong predictor of obesity-related cardiometabolic alterations, but its measurement is costly, time consuming and, in some cases, involves radiation exposure. Glutamate, a by-product of branched-chain-amino-acid (BCAA) catabolism, has been shown to be increased in visceral obese individuals. In this follow-up data analysis, we aimed to investigate the ability of plasma glutamate to identify individuals with visceral obesity and concomitant metabolic alterations. Methods: Measurements of adiposity, targeted blood metabolomics and cardiometabolic risk factors were performed in 59 healthy middle-aged women. Visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue areas were measured by computed tomography (CT) whereas body fat and lean mass were assessed by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). Results: The univariate Pearson correlation coefficient between glutamate and VAT area was r = 0.46 (p < 0.001) and it was r = 0.36 (p = 0.006) when adjusted for total body fat mass. Glutamate allowed to identify individuals with VAT areas ≥100 cm2 (ROC_AUC: 0.78, 95% CI: 0.66–0.91) and VAT ≥130 cm2 (ROC_AUC: 0.71, 95% CI: 0.56–0.87). The optimal glutamate concentration threshold determined from the ROC curve (glutamate ≥34.6 μmol/L) had a greater sensitivity than the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and the hypertriglyceridemic waist (HTW) phenotype to identify individuals with VAT ≥100 cm2 (83% for glutamate vs 52% for the MetS and 35% for the HTW). Variance analysis showed that women with a high circulating glutamate level (≥34.6 μmol/L) had an altered metabolic profile, particularly regarding total triglyceride levels and the amount of triglycerides and cholesterol in very-low-density lipoproteins (all p < 0.01). Conclusion: Circulating glutamate is strongly associated with VAT area and may represent a potential screening tool for visceral obesity and alterations of the metabolic profile. Keywords: Glutamate, Metabolomics, Branched-chain amino acids, Visceral obesity, Waist circumference
Background Obesity is associated with an increased cardiometabolic risk [1, 2]. This association is, however, heterogeneous and it is now increasingly recognized that accumulation of abdominal fat and more precisely visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is a very strong indicator of metabolic dysfunction [3]. Precise assessment of VAT accumulation by imaging methods is not feasible on a large scale because it is costly, time consuming and, in some cases,
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, Laval University, 2725 Chemin Sainte-Foy, Québec, QC G1V 4G5, Canada 2 School of Nutrition, Laval University, Québec, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
involves radiation
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