Metabolites (Jan 2019)

Serum Amino Acids in Association with Prevalent and Incident Type 2 Diabetes in A Chinese Population

  • Yonghai Lu,
  • Yeli Wang,
  • Xu Liang,
  • Li Zou,
  • Choon Nam Ong,
  • Jian-Min Yuan,
  • Woon-Puay Koh,
  • An Pan

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo9010014
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 9, no. 1
p. 14

Abstract

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We aimed to simultaneously examine the associations of both essential and non-essential amino acids with both prevalent and incident type 2 diabetes in a Chinese population. A case-control study was nested within the Singapore Chinese Health Study. Participants included 144 cases with prevalent and 160 cases with incident type 2 diabetes and 304 controls. Cases and controls were individually matched on age, sex, and date of blood collection. Baseline serum levels of 9 essential and 10 non-essential amino acids were measured using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry. We identified that five essential (isoleucine, leucine, lysine, phenylalanine, and valine) and five non-essential (alanine, glutamic acid, glutamine, glycine, and tyrosine) amino acids were associated with the prevalence of type 2 diabetes; four essential (isoleucine, leucine, tryptophan, and valine) and two non-essential (glutamine and tyrosine) amino acids were associated with the incidence of type 2 diabetes. Of these, valine and tyrosine independently led to a significant improvement in risk prediction of incident type 2 diabetes. This study demonstrates that both essential and non-essential amino acids were associated with the risk for prevalent and incident type 2 diabetes, and the findings could aid in diabetes risk assessment in this Chinese population.

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