Differences in plasma metabolome between non-Hispanic White and non-Hispanic Black women

To understand potential racial differences in disease susceptibility and develop targeted prevention strategies, it is essential to establish biological differences between racial groups in healthy individuals. However, knowledge about how race impacts metabolites is limited. We therefore performed a cross-sectional study using comprehensive metabolomics analysis to investigate racial differences in metabolites among 506 non-Hispanic White (NHW) women and 163 non-Hispanic Black (NHB) women.

We performed untargeted plasma metabolomic profiling using Metabolon's platform (Durham, NC®) and identified 1074 metabolites in 9 super-pathways. We used multivariable linear regression models, adjusted for confounders, to identify associations between race and metabolites. We applied a Bonferroni correction (p-value < 10^-5) to account for multiple testing.

We identified 26 metabolites that differed significantly between NHW and NHB women. Seven, 10, 17, and 23 metabolites showed absolute percentage differences ≥ 50, ≥ 40%, ≥ 30%, and ≥ 20%, respectively. Xenobiotics (n = 5) and amino acids (n = 2) exhibited the largest absolute percentage differences (≥ 50%) between NHB and NHW women. In the xenobiotics super-pathway, NHB women had higher thymol sulfate, 2-naphthol sulfate, and 2-hydroxyfluorene sulfate, derived from the exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, while NHW women had higher xanthine metabolites. In the amino acid super-pathway, lysine and tryptophan metabolites were lower in NHB women.

We report differences in several metabolites between NHW and NHB women. These findings require validation in a different study and could provide insight into investigating how racial differences in metabolites may impact disease burden across diverse populations.