Circulating Branched-Chain Amino Acids are Associated with Higher Odds of Obesity: Findings from the FiLWHEL Study

Dietary and circulating branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) exhibited divergent associations with obesity, and this study evaluated the independent and joint associations of dietary intakes and circulating concentrations of BCAA with obesity.

Energy-adjusted dietary and log-transformed circulating BCAAs from 540 Filipino women were categorized into quartiles and dichotomized by the median, low(2) at a two-sided P < 0.05.

The odds of being obese by increasing quartile of dietary total BCAA were 1.00, 0.84 (0.49, 1.43), 0.68 (0.39, 1.19), and 0.56 (0.31, 1.02; P for trend = .05). However, the odds of being obese by increasing quartile of circulating total BCAA were 1.00, 2.62 (1.38, 5.00), 3.43 (1.83, 6.44), and 5.97 (3.19, 11.16; P for trend < .0001). The ORs (95% CI) for being obese by categories of the joint total dietary and circulating BCAA (using low dietary and low circulating BCAA as reference) were 2.06 (1.19, 3.56) for low dietary and high circulating, 0.54 (0.28, 1.02) for high dietary and low circulating and 1.84 (1.03, 3.28) for high dietary and high circulating (P for interaction = .61).

Higher circulating BCAA profiles, independent of dietary BCAA intake levels, were associated with a higher prevalence of obesity, with no evidence of interaction in the divergent independent associations between dietary and circulating BCAAs and obesity.