Metabolite Profiles of Plant-Based Diets and Cardiometabolic Risk in the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America Study

Caleigh M. Sawicki, Yin Ren, Alka M. Kanaya, Namratha Kandula, Meghana Gadgil, Liming Liang, Danielle E. Haslam, Shilpa N. Bhupathiraju*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background: Healthy plant-based diets have been associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). Metabolomics can be leveraged to identify potential pathways through which diet influences disease risk. Objectives: This study aimed to identify profiles of serum metabolites reflective of plant-based diets of varying quality and examine associations with cardiometabolic risk and T2D. Methods: We included data from 687 participants of the Mediators of Atherosclerosis in South Asians Living in America (MASALA) cohort. An overall plant-based diet index (PDI), healthy PDI (hPDI), and unhealthy PDI (uPDI) were estimated from food frequency questionnaires. Serum metabolites were assayed using ultraperformance liquid chromatography mass spectrometry. Elastic net regression was used to identify sets of metabolites predictive of each diet index, and metabolite profile scores were calculated as the weighted sum of the selected metabolites. Cross-sectional associations between metabolite profile scores and cardiometabolic measures and prospective associations with incident T2D were evaluated with multivariable-adjusted linear and logistic regressions. Results: Metabolite profiles for PDI, hPDI, and uPDI consisted of n = 51, 55, and 45 metabolites, respectively. Metabolites strongly positively correlated with diet indices included phosphatidylcholine (16:0/18:3) for PDI, phosphatidylethanolamine (20:1/20:4) and pantothenate for hPDI, and lysophosphatidylglycerol (18:2/0:0), proline, and lauric acid for uPDI. Higher metabolite profile scores for PDI and hPDI were associated with lower glycemia and lipids measures, whereas a higher uPDI metabolite score was associated with higher triglycerides and lower low density lipoprotein cholesterol and high density lipoprotein cholesterol. A higher metabolite score for hPDI was additionally associated with lower adiposity measures, higher liver fat attenuation, higher adiponectin, lower odds of overweight (odds ratio [OR]: 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.51, 0.81) and obesity (OR: 0.59; 95% CI: 0.48, 0.74), and lower odds of incident T2D (OR: 0.66; 95% CI: 0.45, 0.97). Conclusions: Metabolite profiles of different plant-based diets were identified. Metabolite profiles of overall and healthy plant-based diets were associated with favorable cardiometabolic risk profiles.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2501-2513
Number of pages13
JournalJournal of Nutrition
Volume154
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2024

Funding

Caleigh Sawicki reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health. Danielle Haslam reports financial support was provided by National Institutes of Health. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. The MASALA Study was funded by Grant Number R01HL093009 from the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute and the National Center for Research Resources and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI Grant Number UL1RR024131 and UL1TR001872. Metabolomics measures in MASALA were funded by an anonymous donor. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute or the National Institutes of Health. CMS and DEH are supported by NRSA grant T32 CA 009001 and DEH is supported by NIH K01DK136968. The MASALA Study was funded by Grant Number R01HL093009 from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, the National Center for Research Resources, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, National Institutes of Health, through UCSF-CTSI Grant Numbers UL1RR024131 and UL1TR001872. Metabolomics measures in MASALA were funded by an anonymous donor. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute or the National Institutes of Health. CMS and DEH are supported by NRSA grant T32 CA 009001

Keywords

  • cardiovascular disease
  • diabetes
  • diet quality
  • metabolomics
  • plant-based diet

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Medicine (miscellaneous)
  • Nutrition and Dietetics

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