Tryptophan Predicts the Risk for Future Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Recently, 5 amino acids were identified and verified as important metabolites highly associated with type 2 diabetes (T2D) development. This report aims to assess the association of tryptophan with the development of T2D and to evaluate its performance with existing amino acid markers. A total of 213 participants selected from a ten-year longitudinal Shanghai Diabetes Study (SHDS) were examined in two ways: 1) 51 subjects who developed diabetes and 162 individuals who remained metabolically healthy in 10 years; 2) the same 51 future diabetes and 23 strictly matched ones selected from the 162 healthy individuals. Baseline fasting serum tryptophan concentrations were quantitatively measured using ultra-performance liquid chromatography triple quadruple mass spectrometry. First, serum tryptophan level was found significantly higher in future T2D and was positively and independently associated with diabetes onset risk. Patients with higher tryptophan level tended to present higher degree of insulin resistance and secretion, triglyceride and blood pressure. Second, the prediction potential of tryptophan is non-inferior to the 5 existing amino acids. The predictive performance of the combined score improved after taking tryptophan into account. Our findings unveiled the potential of tryptophan as a new marker associated with diabetes risk in Chinese populations. The addition of tryptophan provided complementary value to the existing amino acid predictors.

Diet, Genetics, and the Gut Microbiome Drive Dynamic Changes in Plasma Metabolites

“…Aromatic amino acids have been linked to insulin resistance (Chen et al, 2016; Wang et al, 2011a) and showed multiple pathway-specific changes (Figure 5B). Tryptophan levels in the cecum were decreased by metronidazole in all strains and by vancomycin in 129T mice, indicating the role of gut microbiota in tryptophan metabolism; however, this was not reflected by changes in the plasma.…”

Spermidine Suppresses Inflammatory DC Function by Activating the FOXO3 Pathway and Counteracts Autoimmunity

“…After 0.5, 4 and 16 hours, samples were collected to perform extraction of metabolites. Amino acids were measured in cell samples that were previously stored at −80°C using a quantitative UPLC-MS/MS platform (ACQUITY UPLC-Xevo TQ-S, Waters Corp., Milford, MA, USA) according to previously published methods (Chen et al, 2016a;Chen et al, 2016b). All chromatographic separations were performed with an ACQUITY BEH C18 column VanGuard pre-column (2.1×5 mm) and analytical column (2.1×100 mm).…”

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