Our previous studies have demonstrated that histidine supplementation significantly ameliorates inflammation and oxidative stress in obese women and high-fat diet-induced obese rats. However, the effects of dietary histidine on general population are not known. The objective of this Internet-based cross-sectional study was to evaluate the associations between dietary histidine and prevalence of overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity in northern Chinese population. A total of 2376 participants were randomly recruited and asked to finish our Internet-based dietary questionnaire for the Chinese (IDQC). Afterwards, 88 overweight/obese participants were randomly selected to explore the possible mechanism. Compared with healthy controls, dietary histidine was significantly lower in overweight (p < 0.05) and obese (p < 0.01) participants of both sexes. Dietary histidine was inversely associated with body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC) and blood pressure in overall population and stronger associations were observed in women and overweight/obese participants. Higher dietary histidine was associated with lower prevalence of overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity, especially in women. Further studies indicated that higher dietary histidine was associated with lower fasting blood glucose (FBG), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), 2-h postprandial glucose (2 h-PG), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin-6 (IL-6), C-reactive protein (CRP), malonaldehyde (MDA) and vaspin and higher glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and adiponectin of overweight/obese individuals of both sexes. In conclusion, higher dietary histidine is inversely associated with energy intake, status of insulin resistance, inflammation and oxidative stress in overweight/obese participants and lower prevalence of overweight/obesity in northern Chinese adults.

This study aims to examine the association between the ratio of dietary branched chain amino acids (BCAA) and risk of obesity among young northern Chinese adults. A total of 948 randomly recruited participants were asked to finish our internet-based dietary questionnaire for the Chinese (IDQC). Associations between dietary BCAA ratio and prevalence of overweight/obesity and abdominal obesity were analyzed. Furthermore, 90 subjects were randomly selected to explore the possible mechanism. Dietary BCAA ratio in obese participants was significantly lower than non-obese participants. We found negative correlations between the ratio of dietary BCAA and body mass index (BMI) (r = −0.197, p < 0.001) or waist circumference (r = −0.187, p < 0.001). Compared with those in the first quartile, the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI) of the 3rd and 4th quartiles of dietary BCAA ratio for overweight/obesity were 0.508 (0.265–0.972) and 0.389 (0.193–0.783), respectively (all p < 0.05). After stratification by gender, the significance still existed in the 3rd and 4th quartile in males and the 4th quartile in females. For abdominal obesity, the multivariable-adjusted OR (95% CI) of the 3rd and 4th quartile of dietary BCAA ratio were 0.351 (0.145–0.845) and 0.376 (0.161–0.876), respectively (all p < 0.05). This significance was stronger in males. Further studies indicated that dietary BCAA ratio was inversely associated with 2-h postprandial glucose (2 h-PG) and status of inflammation. In conclusion, a higher ratio of dietary BCAA is inversely associated with prevalence of obesity, postprandial glucose and status of inflammation in young northern Chinese adults.

BACKGROUND: This study investigated the use of serum amino acids and organic acids profiles as the novel metabolites for screening breast cancer (BC) patients. METHODS: A total of 116 subjects as training set were divided into the following three gro

Background: Calcium deficiency is a global public-health problem. Although the initial stage of calcium deficiency can lead to metabolic alterations or potential pathological changes, calcium deficiency is difficult to diagnose accurately. Moreover, the details of the molecular mechanism of calcium deficiency remain somewhat elusive. To accurately assess and provide appropriate nutritional intervention, we carried out a global analysis of metabolic alterations in response to calcium deficiency. Methods: The metabolic alterations associated with calcium deficiency were first investigated in a rat model, using urinary metabonomics based on ultra-performance liquid chromatography coupled with quadrupole time-of-flight tandem mass spectrometry and multivariate statistical analysis. Correlations between dietary calcium intake and the biomarkers identified from the rat model were further analyzed to confirm the potential application of these biomarkers in humans. Results: Urinary metabolic-profiling analysis could preliminarily distinguish between calcium-deficient and non-deficient rats after a 2-week low-calcium diet. We established an integrated metabonomics strategy for identifying reliable biomarkers of calcium deficiency using a time-course analysis of discriminating metabolites in a low-calcium diet experiment, repeating the low-calcium diet experiment and performing a calcium-supplement experiment. In total, 27 biomarkers were identified, including glycine, oxoglutaric acid, pyrophosphoric acid, sebacic acid, pseudouridine, indoxyl sulfate, taurine, and phenylacetylglycine. The integrated urinary metabonomics analysis, which combined biomarkers with regular trends of change (types A, B, and C), could accurately assess calcium-deficient rats at different stages and clarify the dynamic pathophysiological changes and molecular mechanism of calcium deficiency in detail. Significant correlations between calcium intake and two biomarkers, pseudouridine (Pearson correlation, r = 0.53, P = 0.0001) and citrate (Pearson correlation, r = -0.43, P = 0.001), were further confirmed in 70 women. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report of reliable biomarkers of calcium deficiency, which were identified using an integrated strategy. The identified biomarkers give new insights into the pathophysiological changes and molecular mechanisms of calcium deficiency. The correlations between calcium intake and two of the biomarkers provide a rationale or potential for further assessment and elucidation of the metabolic responses of calcium deficiency in humans.

Hyperlipidemia (HLP) is characterized by a disturbance in lipid metabolism and is a primary risk factor for the development of insulin resistance (IR) and a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. The aim of this work was to investigate the changes in postprandial amino acid and biogenic amine profiles provoked by an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in HLP patients using targeted metabolomics. We used ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry to analyze the serum amino acid and biogenic amine profiles of 35 control and 35 HLP subjects during an OGTT. The amino acid and biogenic amine profiles from 30 HLP subjects were detected as independent samples to validate the changes in the metabolites. There were differences in the amino acid and biogenic amine profiles between the HLP individuals and the healthy controls at baseline and after the OGTT. The per cent changes of 13 metabolites from fasting to the 2 h samples during the OGTT in the HLP patients were significantly different from those of the healthy controls. The lipid parameters were associated with the changes in valine, isoleucine, creatine, creatinine, dimethylglycine, asparagine, serine, and tyrosine (all p < 0.05) during the OGTT in the HLP group. The postprandial changes in isoleucine and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) during the OGTT were positively associated with the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; all p < 0.05) in the HLP group. Elevated oxidative stress and disordered energy metabolism during OGTTs are important characteristics of metabolic perturbations in HLP. Our findings offer new insights into the complex physiological regulation of metabolism during the OGTT in HLP.