Branched chain amino acid-inflammation relationship in youth with obesity: A randomized controlled intervention study.

CONTEXT Elevated concentrations of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) are strong predictors of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Their association with cardiovascular disease (CVD) remains uncertain, particularly in youth. We investigated the role of BCAA and aromatic amino acids (AAA) in obesity, their relationships with novel biomarkers of CVD and response to a physical activity-based lifestyle intervention (PAL-I) in a randomized controlled study in youth with normal weight (NW) and obesity (OB). METHODS Age (14-18 years) and Tanner stage (≥IV) matched youth (OB, n=15 and NW, n=6) were studied; the 15 participants with OB underwent a 3-month randomized controlled PAL-I. Circulating amino acid profile, glucose, insulin, lipids, adiponectin, retinol binding protein-4 (RBP4), fibrinogen, high-sensitivity c-reactive protein (hs-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6) and 25-hydroxy vitamin-D, along with body composition (DXA) were measured at baseline and after PAL-I. Independent t-tests, analysis of covariance and mixed effect models were used for analysis of the data. RESULTS Compared to NW, the concentration of various amino acids including BCAA and AAA were altered in the OB (P 0.05) on BCAA and AAA. Glutamine, glycine, and aspartic acid decreased with PAL-I (p<0.05 for all). CONCLUSIONS The novel finding of the BCAA-inflammation relationship along with strong correlations with nontraditional biomarkers of CVD may evoke the prospect of BCAA as a biomarkers of CVD and a potential link between obesity, T2DM and CVD.