Metabolomic Links between Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Intake and Obesity
Bingjie Zhou1, Reiko Ichikawa1,2, Laurence D Parnell3
1Nutrition and Genomics Laboratory, JM-USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA, USA.
Background:
Sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is highly associated with obesity, but the metabolic mechanism underlying this correlation is not understood.
Objective:
Our objective was to examine metabolomic links between SSB intake and obesity to understand metabolic mechanisms.
Design:
We examined the association of plasma metabolomic profiles with SSB intake and obesity risk in 781 participants, aged 45-75 y, in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study (BPRHS) using generalized linear models, controlling for potential confounding factors. Based on identified metabolites, we conducted pathway enrichment analysis to identify potential metabolic pathways that link SSB intake and obesity risk. Variants in genes encoding enzymes known to function in identified metabolic pathways were examined for their interactions with SSB intake on obesity.
Results:
SSB intake was correlated with BMI (β = 0.607, P=0.045). Among 526 measured metabolites, 86 showed a significant correlation with SSB intake and 148 with BMI (P ≤ 0.05); 28 were correlated with both SSB intake and BMI (P ≤ 0.05). Pathway enrichment analysis identified the phosphatidylcholine and lysophospholipid pathways as linking SSB intake to obesity, after correction for multiple testing. Furthermore, 8 of 10 genes functioning in these two pathways showed strong interaction with SSB intake on BMI. Our results further identified participants who may exhibit an increased risk of obesity when consuming SSB.
Conclusions:
We identified two key metabolic pathways that link SSB intake to obesity, revealing the potential of phosphatidylcholine and lysophospholipid to modulate how SSB intake can increase obesity risk. The interaction between genetic variants related to these pathways and SSB intake on obesity further supports the mechanism.
More Related Videos
09:10Palatable Western-style Cafeteria Diet as a Reliable Method for Modeling Diet-induced Obesity in Rodents
Published on: November 1, 2019
14:56Sample Preparation to Bioinformatics Analysis of DNA Methylation: Association Strategy for Obesity and Related Trait Studies
Published on: May 6, 2022
Related Concept Videos
Obesity
Sugars as Energy Storage Molecules
Glucose Transporters
Facilitated diffusion-glucose transporters (GLUTs) are encoded by the solute-linked carrier (SLC) family 2, subfamily A gene family, or SLC2A. The 14 GLUT protein members are distributed into three classes:
Overview of Carbohydrate Metabolism
Glucose transport into cells is facilitated by a family of transport proteins called GLUT (Glucose Transporters). GLUT4 is the primary glucose transporter for insulin-stimulated glucose...
Carbohydrate Metabolism
Starch accounts for approximately 60% of the carbohydrates consumed by humans. Since amylase enzymes cannot function in the stomach's acidic environment, starch can only be digested in the mouth and small intestine. Simple sugars are found naturally in milk and fruits in...
Glucose Absorption Into the Small Intestine
