Association of serum metabolites with impaired fasting glucose/diabetes and traditional risk factors for metabolic disease in Chinese adults

Abstract Background Hyperglycemia has become a major health problem worldwide. We investigated the associations of serum metabolite levels with hyperglycemia (impaired fasting glucose/diabetes) and traditional risk factors for metabolic disease. Methods A total of 563 Chinese adults were categorized into hyperglycemia and control groups. Associations of serum metabolites, including branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), aromatic amino acids (AAAs), glutamine (Gln), glutamic acid (Glu), Gln/Glu ratio, 25-hydroxyvitamin D, and lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC), with hyperglycemia and traditional risk factors of metabolic disease were investigated using our targeted metabolomics method. Results Participants with impaired fasting glucose or diabetes exhibited markedly lower levels of Gln/Glu and unsaturated LPC and higher levels of Glu and BCAAs. Gln/Glu ratio, unsaturated LPC, and 25-hydroxyvitamin D were positively correlated with protective factors, while saturated LPC, BCAAs, AAAs, and Glu revealed close correlations with traditional risk factors. In the logistic regression, low Gln/Glu ratio and high BCAA level were independent risk factors for hyperglycemia; the odds ratios (95% confidence interval) of the highest quartile compared with the lowest quartile were 0.499 (0.274–0.910) and 2.588 (1.313–5.102) (P  Conclusions Gln/Glu ratio, BCAAs, and LPC were significantly related to hyperglycemia development and risk factors for metabolic disease.