Associations between branched chain amino acid intake and biomarkers of adiposity and cardiometabolic health independent of genetic factors: A twin study☆

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Abstract

Background

Conflicting data exist on the impact of dietary and circulating levels of branched chain amino acids (BCAA) on cardiometabolic health and it is unclear to what extent these relations are mediated by genetics.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study of 1997 female twins we examined associations between BCAA intake, measured using food frequency-questionnaires, and a range of markers of cardiometabolic health, including DXA-measured body fat, blood pressure, HOMA-IR, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) and lipids. We also measured plasma concentrations of BCAA and known metabolites of amino acid metabolism using untargeted mass spectrometry. Using a within-twin design, multivariable analyses were used to compare the associations between BCAA intake and endpoints of cardiometabolic health, independently of genetic confounding.

Results

Higher BCAA intake was significantly associated with lower HOMA-IR (− 0.1, P-trend 0.02), insulin (− 0.5 μU/mL, P-trend 0.03), hs-CRP − 0.3 mg/L, P-trend 0.01), systolic blood pressure (− 2.3 mmHg, P-trend 0.01) and waist-to-height ratio (− 0.01, P-trend 0.04), comparing extreme quintiles of intake. These associations persisted in within-pair analysis for monozygotic twins for insulin resistance ( P < 0.01), inflammation ( P = 0.03), and blood pressure ( P = 0.04) suggesting independence from genetic confounding. There was no association between BCAA intake and plasma concentrations, although two metabolites previously associated with obesity were inversely associated with BCAA intake (alpha-hydroxyisovalerate and trans-4-hydroxyproline).

Conclusions

Higher intakes of BCAA were associated, independently of genetics, with lower insulin resistance, inflammation, blood pressure and adiposity-related metabolites. The BCAA intake associated with our findings is easily achievable in the habitual diet.

Related collections

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To evaluate whether the homeostasis model assessment (HOMA) is a reliable surrogate measure of in vivo insulin sensitivity in humans. In the present study, we compared insulin sensitivity as assessed by a 4-h euglycemic (approximately 5 mmol/l) hyperinsulinemic (approximately 300 pmol/l) clamp with HOMA in 115 subjects with various degrees of glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. We found a strong correlation between clamp-measured total glucose disposal and HOMA-estimated insulin sensitivity (r = -0.820, P<0.0001), with no substantial differences between men (r = -0.800) and women (r = -0.796), younger (aged <50 years, r = -0.832) and older (r = -0.800) subjects, nonobese (BMI <27 kg/m2, r = -0.800) and obese (r = -0.765) subjects, nondiabetic (r = -0.754) and diabetic (r = -0.695) subjects, and normotensive ( r = -0.786) and hypertensive (r = -0.762) subjects. Also, we found good agreement between the two methods in the categorization of subjects according to insulin sensitivity (weighted k = 0.63). We conclude that the HOMA can be reliably used in large-scale or epidemiological studies in which only a fasting blood sample is available to assess insulin sensitivity

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Author and article information

Contributors

Aedín Cassidy

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Int J Cardiol

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Int. J. Cardiol

Title: International Journal of Cardiology

Publisher: Elsevier

ISSN (Print): 0167-5273

ISSN (Electronic): 1874-1754

Publication date PMC-release: 15 November 2016

Publication date (Print): 15 November 2016

Volume: 223

Pages: 992-998

Affiliations

[a ]Department of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK

[b ]Department of Twin Research and Genetic Epidemiology, Kings College London, London, UK

Author notes

[* ]Corresponding author at: Department of Nutrition and Preventive Medicine, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.Department of Nutrition and Preventive MedicineNorwich Medical SchoolUniversity of East AngliaNorwichUK a.cassidy@ 123456uea.ac.uk

[1]

This author takes responsibility for all aspects of the reliability and freedom from bias of the data presented and their discussed interpretation.

Article

Publisher ID: S0167-5273(16)32027-7

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2016.08.307

PMC ID: 5074005

PubMed ID: 27591698

SO-VID: 2f594af9-460f-4728-be0e-1bcfbb8072a4

License:

This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

History

Date received : 17 June 2016

Date accepted : 19 August 2016

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