Highlights
- •We establish the plasma amino acid concentration in healthy young adults.
- •The plasma amino acid profile differs between obesity and insulin resistance (IR).
- •Alanine, aspartate, proline and tyrosine increase in young adults with obesity and IR.
- •Glycine decreases in young adults with obesity and IR.
Abstract
Background and aims
An increase in plasma branched-chain amino acids is associated with a higher risk
of developing type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. However, little is known
about the basal plasma amino acid concentrations in young adults. Our aim was to determine
the plasma amino acid profiles of young adults and to evaluate how these profiles
were modified by sex, body mass index (BMI) and insulin resistance (IR).
Methods and results
We performed a transversal study with 608 Mexican young adults aged 19.9 ± 2.4 years
who were applicants to the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí. The subjects underwent
a physical examination and provided a clinical history and a blood sample for biochemical,
hormonal and amino acid analyses. The women had higher levels of arginine, aspartate
and serine and lower levels of α-aminoadipic acid, cysteine, isoleucine, leucine,
methionine, proline, tryptophan, tyrosine, urea and valine than the men. The obese
subjects had higher levels of alanine, aspartate, cysteine, ornithine, phenylalanine,
proline and tyrosine and lower levels of glycine, ornithine and serine than the normal
weight subjects. Subjects with IR (defined as HOMA > 2.5) had higher levels of arginine,
alanine, aspartate, isoleucine, leucine, phenylalanine, proline, tyrosine, taurine
and valine than the subjects without IR. Furthermore, we identified two main groups
in the subjects with obesity and/or IR; one group was composed of amino acids that positively
correlated with the clinical, biochemical and hormonal parameters, whereas the second
group exhibited negative correlations.
Conclusion
This study demonstrates that young adults with obesity or IR have altered amino acid
profiles characterized by an increase in alanine, aspartate, proline and tyrosine
and a decrease in glycine.
Keywords
Abbreviations:
BMI (body mass index), IR (insulin resistance), HOMA (homeostatic model assessment), BCAA (branched-chain amino acids), SBP (systolic blood pressure), DBP (diastolic blood pressure), TC (total cholesterol), TG (triglycerides), OR (odds ratio), CI (confidence intervals)To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular DiseasesAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Plasma amino acid levels and insulin secretion in obesity.N Engl J Med. 1969; 281: 811-816
- Branched-chain amino acids in metabolic signalling and insulin resistance.Nat Rev Endocrinol. 2014; 10: 723-736
- A branched-chain amino acid-related metabolic signature that differentiates obese and lean humans and contributes to insulin resistance.Cell Metab. 2009; 9: 311-326
- Metabolite profiles and the risk of developing diabetes.Nat Med. 2011; 17: 448-453
- Neutral and basic amino acid concentrations in plasma during the day in subjects fed with two model rural and two model urban Mexican diets.Am J Clin Nutr. 1996; 63: 335-341
- Plasma branched-chain and aromatic amino acid concentration after ingestion of an urban or rural diet in rural Mexican women.BMC Obes. 2015; 2: 8
- Amino acid profiles in diet, plasma and human milk in Mexican rural lactating women.Nutr Res. 1999; 19: 1133-1143
- Plasma total homocysteine in Mexican rural and urban women fed typical model diets.Nutrition. 2003; 19: 826-831
- Chronic dietary exposure to branched chain amino acids impairs glucose disposal in vegans but not in omnivores.Eur J Clin Nutr. 2017; 5: 594-601
- Anthropometric standardization reference manual.Human Kinetics Books, Champaign, IL1998: 1-177
- Obesity: preventing and managing the global epidemic. vol. 894:i–xii. World Health Organization Technical Report Series, 2000: 1-253
- Homeostasis model assessment: insulin resistance and beta-cell function from fasting plasma glucose and insulin concentrations in man.Diabetologia. 1985; 28: 412-419
- Omental adipose tissue gene expression, gene variants, branched-chain amino acids, and their relationship with metabolic syndrome and insulin resistance in humans.Genes Nutr. 2014; 9: 431
- Relationship between insulin resistance and amino acids in women and men.Physiol Rep. 2015; 3e12392
- Association between insulin resistance and plasma amino acid profile in non-diabetic Japanese subjects.J Diabetes Investig. 2015; 6: 408-415
- An essential role of the mitochondrial electron transport chain in cell proliferation is to enable aspartate synthesis.Cell. 2015; 162: 540-551
- Supporting aspartate biosynthesis is an essential function of respiration in proliferating cells.Cell. 2015; 162: 552-563
- Associations among the plasma amino acid profile, obesity, and glucose metabolism in Japanese adults with normal glucose tolerance.Nutr Metab. 2016; 13: 5
- Branched-chain amino acid restriction in Zucker-fatty rats improves muscle insulin sensitivity by enhancing efficiency of fatty acid oxidation and acyl-glycine export.Mol Metab. 2016; 5: 538-551
- Scallop protein with endogenous high taurine and glycine content prevents high-fat, high-sucrose-induced obesity and improves plasma lipid profile in male C57BL/6J mice.Amino Acids. 2014; 46: 1659-1671
- Glycine normalizes hepatic triglyceride-rich VLDL secretion by triggering the CNS in high-fat fed rats.Circ Res. 2012; 110: 1345-1354
- Glycine supplementation during calorie restriction accelerates fat loss and protects against further muscle loss in obese mice.Clin Nutr. 2016; 35: 1118-1126
- Lehninger principles of biochemistry.4th ed. W.H. Freeman and Company, 2005
- The pathogenesis of insulin resistance: integrating signaling pathways and substrate flux.J Clin Invest. 2016; 126: 12-22
- The methionine transamination pathway controls hepatic glucose metabolism through regulation of the GCN5 acetyltransferase and the PGC-1alpha transcriptional coactivator.J Biol Chem. 2016; 291: 10635-10645
- Gender differences in the regulation of amino acid metabolism.J Appl Physiol. 2003; 95: 1259-1265
- Regulation of leptin secretion from white adipocytes by insulin, glycolytic substrates, and amino acids.Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab. 2005; 289: E166-E171
- Mechanisms behind gender differences in circulating leptin levels.J Intern Med. 2000; 247: 457-462
- Metabolic Fate of branched-chain amino acids during adipogenesis, in adipocytes from obese mice and C2C12 myotubes.J Cell Biochem. 2017; 118: 808-818
- Adipose tissue branched chain amino acid (BCAA) metabolism modulates circulating BCAA levels.J Biol Chem. 2010; 285: 11348-11356
- Branched-chain and aromatic amino acids are predictors of insulin resistance in young adults.Diabetes Care. 2013; 36: 648-655
- Orexin A regulates plasma insulin and leptin levels in a time-dependent manner following a glucose load in mice.Diabetologia. 2015; 58: 1542-1550
- Branched-chain amino acids are associated with cardiometabolic risk profiles found already in lean, overweight and obese young.J Nutr Biochem. 2016; 32: 123-127
- The mTORC1-signaling pathway and hepatic polyribosome profile are enhanced after the recovery of a protein restricted diet by a combination of soy or black bean with corn protein.Nutrients. 2016; 8: E573
- Control of overweight and obesity in childhood through education in meal time habits. The 'good manners for a healthy future' programme.Pediatr Obes. 2016; 11: 484-490
Article info
Publication history
Published online: January 09, 2018
Accepted:
January 3,
2018
Received in revised form:
December 29,
2017
Received:
June 23,
2017
Handling Editor: Dr. A. SianiIdentification
Copyright
© 2018 The Italian Society of Diabetology, the Italian Society for the Study of Atherosclerosis, the Italian Society of Human Nutrition, and the Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Federico II University. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
