Identification of Differential Responses to an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test in Healthy Adults

Abstract

BackgroundIn recent years an individual’s ability to respond to an acute dietary challenge has emerged as a measure of their biological flexibility. Analysis of such responses has been proposed to be an indicator of health status. However, for this to be fully realised further work on differential responses to nutritional challenge is needed. This study examined whether metabolic phenotyping could identify differential responders to an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and examined the phenotypic basis of the response.Methods and ResultsA total of 214 individuals were recruited and underwent challenge tests in the form of an OGTT and an oral lipid tolerance test (OLTT). Detailed biochemical parameters, body composition and fitness tests were recorded. Mixed model clustering was employed to define 4 metabotypes consisting of 4 different responses to an OGTT. Cluster 1 was of particular interest, with this metabotype having the highest BMI, triacylglycerol, hsCRP, c-peptide, insulin and HOMA- IR score and lowest VO2max. Cluster 1 had a reduced beta cell function and a differential response to insulin and c-peptide during an OGTT. Additionally, cluster 1 displayed a differential response to the OLTT.ConclusionsThis work demonstrated that there were four distinct metabolic responses to the OGTT. Classification of subjects based on their response curves revealed an “at risk” metabolic phenotype.

Multi-parameter comparison of a standardized mixed meal tolerance test in healthy and type 2 diabetic subjects: the PhenFlex challenge

“…The use of emerging technologies like metabolic profiling and targeted proteomics in metabolic tolerance tests has allowed the development of a new generation of biomarkers [5] by the simultaneous quantification of multiple processes [3,[6][7][8][9][10][11]. The response to challenges may be used to derive biomarkers for maintenance of physiological function and ultimately as indicator for prevention of (metabolic) diseases.…”

“…The response to challenges may be used to derive biomarkers for maintenance of physiological function and ultimately as indicator for prevention of (metabolic) diseases. There is a strongly increasing interest in this type of biomarker in nutrition and health studies, demonstrating their use in uncovering early alterations in metabolism preceeding chronic diseases [9,[11][12][13][14]. Recently, it was shown that quantification of challenge response significantly contributes to demonstrating health effects of food and nutrition in dietary intervention studies [6,7,[14][15][16][17][18].…”

Body mass index mediates inflammatory response to acute dietary challenges

“…Nutrients can modulate the immune response, for example particular lipids can elicit a proinflammatory state in many tissues and cell types . However, the mechanisms underlying these responses and how they relate to the metabolic phenotype remain largely unexplored . Furthermore, we do not know which biological processes respond in a different way between phenotypically distinct individuals.…”

Use of metabotyping for the delivery of personalised nutrition

“…Concomitant to the development of the concept of personalised dietary advice, the concept of the delivery of tailored dietary advice to a group of similar individuals has evolved , which is often referred to as targeted nutrition. Metabotyping refers to the process of grouping or stratifying individuals based on their phenotypic or metabolic profiles . It has previously been suggested that the identification of these metabotypes may pave the way forward in terms of personalised healthcare .…”