Free Fatty Acids Signature in Human Intestinal Disorders: Significant Association between Butyric Acid and Celiac Disease
Simone Baldi,
Marta Menicatti,
Giulia Nannini,
Elena Niccolai,
Edda Russo,
Federica Ricci,
Marco Pallecchi,
Francesca Romano,
Matteo Pedone,
Giovanni Poli,
Daniela Renzi,
Antonio Taddei,
Antonino S. Calabrò,
Francesco C. Stingo,
Gianluca Bartolucci,
Amedeo Amedei
Affiliations
Simone Baldi
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Marta Menicatti
Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health Section of Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Sciences University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy
Giulia Nannini
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Elena Niccolai
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Edda Russo
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Federica Ricci
Department of Biomedical, Experimental and Clinical Sciences “Mario Serio” University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Marco Pallecchi
Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health Section of Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Sciences University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy
Francesca Romano
Laboratory of Clinical Pathology, Versilia Hospital, 55041 Lido di Camaiore, Italy
Matteo Pedone
Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications “G. Parenti”, 50134 Florence, Italy
Giovanni Poli
Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications “G. Parenti”, 50134 Florence, Italy
Daniela Renzi
Department of Biomedical, Experimental and Clinical Sciences “Mario Serio” University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Antonio Taddei
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Antonino S. Calabrò
Department of Biomedical, Experimental and Clinical Sciences “Mario Serio” University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Francesco C. Stingo
Department of Statistics, Computer Science, Applications “G. Parenti”, 50134 Florence, Italy
Gianluca Bartolucci
Department of Neurosciences, Psychology, Drug Research and Child Health Section of Pharmaceutical and Nutraceutical Sciences University of Florence, 50139 Florence, Italy
Amedeo Amedei
Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, 50134 Florence, Italy
Altered circulating levels of free fatty acids (FFAs), namely short chain fatty acids (SCFAs), medium chain fatty acids (MCFAs), and long chain fatty acids (LCFAs), are associated with metabolic, gastrointestinal, and malignant diseases. Hence, we compared the serum FFA profile of patients with celiac disease (CD), adenomatous polyposis (AP), and colorectal cancer (CRC) to healthy controls (HC). We enrolled 44 patients (19 CRC, 9 AP, 16 CD) and 16 HC. We performed a quantitative FFA evaluation with the gas chromatography–mass spectrometry method (GC–MS), and we performed Dirichlet-multinomial regression in order to highlight disease-specific FFA signature. HC showed a different composition of FFAs than CRC, AP, and CD patients. Furthermore, the partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) confirmed perfect overlap between the CRC and AP patients and separation of HC from the diseased groups. The Dirichlet-multinomial regression identified only strong positive association between CD and butyric acid. Moreover, CD patients showed significant interactions with age, BMI, and gender. In addition, among patients with the same age and BMI, being male compared to being female implies a decrease of the CD effect on the (log) prevalence of butyric acid in FFA composition. Our data support GC–MS as a suitable method for the concurrent analysis of circulating SCFAs, MCFAs, and LCFAs in different gastrointestinal diseases. Furthermore, and notably, we suggest for the first time that butyric acid could represent a potential biomarker for CD screening.