The muscle metabolome differs between healthy and frail older adults

Populations around the world are aging rapidly. Age-related loss of physiological functions negatively affects quality of life. A major contributor to the frailty syndrome of aging is loss of skeletal muscle. In this study we assessed the skeletal muscle biopsy metabolome of healthy young, healthy older and frail older subjects to determine the effect of age and frailty on the metabolic signature of skeletal muscle tissue. In addition, the effects of prolonged whole-body resistance-type exercise training on the muscle metabolome of older subjects were examined. The baseline metabolome was measured in muscle biopsies collected from 30 young, 66 healthy older subjects and 43 frail older subjects. Follow-up samples from frail older (24 samples) and healthy older subjects (38 samples) were collected after 6 months of prolonged resistance-type exercise training. Young subjects were included as a reference If thisgroup. Primary differences in skeletal muscle metabolite levels between young and healthy older subjects were related to mitochondrial function, muscle fiber type, and tissue turnover. Similar differences were observed when comparing frail older subjects with healthy older subjects at baseline. Prolonged resistance-type exercise training resulted in an adaptive response of amino acid metabolism, especially reflected in branched chain amino acids and genes related to tissue remodeling. The effect of exercise training on branched-chain amino acid-derived acylcarnitines in older subjects points to a downward shift in branched-chain amino acid catabolism upon training. We observed only modest correlations between muscle and plasma metabolite levels, which pleads against the use of plasma metabolites as a direct read-out of muscle metabolism and stresses the need for direct assessment of metabolites in muscle tissue biopsies

How to measure health improvement? : assessment of subtle shifts in metabolic phenotype

Human health is impacted by a complex network of interactions between biological pathways, mechanisms, processes, and organs, which need to be able to adapt to a continuously changing environment to maintain health. This adaptive ability is called ‘phenotypic flexibility’. It is thought that health is compromised and diseases develop when these adaptive processes fail. As the product of interactions between several factors such as genetic makeup, diet, lifestyle, environment and the gut microbiome, the ‘metabolic phenotype’ provides a readout of the metabolic state of an individual. Understanding these relationships will be one of a major challenges in nutrition and health research in the next decades. To address this challenge, the development of high-throughput omics tools combined with the application of elaborate statistical analyses will help characterize the complex relationship of (bio) chemicals in human systems and their interaction with other variables including environment and lifestyle to produce the measured phenotype. An important aim of this thesis was to identify phenotype shifts by looking at effect of prolonged resistance-type exercise training on skeletal muscle tissue in older subjects and the possible shift toward the features of younger subjects as a reference for a healthier phenotype. A second aim was to identify phenotype shifts by looking at the response to a challenge in obese subjects and the possible shift toward lean subjects as a reference for a healthier phenotype. Chapter 2 and 3 of this thesis show how the significant remaining plasticity of ageing skeletal muscle can adapt to resistance-type exercise training. The data indicate that frail and healthy older subjects have two distinct phenotypes according to the skeletal muscle tissue metabolite profiles and that exercise training shifts aged muscle towards a younger phenotype. We showed that the effect of exercise on amino acid derived acylcarnitines (AAAC’s) in older subjects points towards decreased branched chain amino acid catabolism, likely due to compromised activation of the branched chain α-keto acid hydrogenase (BCKDH) complex. Furthermore, we found that the protocadherin gamma gene cluster might be involved in aged-muscle denervation and re-innervation. Finally, plasma was found to be a poor indicator of muscle metabolism, emphasizing the need for direct assessment of metabolites in muscle tissue. Chapter 4 of this thesis examines whether a mixed meal challenge response provides a readout for a shift in phenotype upon weight loss in obese male subjects. We concluded that weight loss moderately affects the mixed meal challenge response of both plasma metabolome and transcriptome of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in obese subjects. Measurements at the fasted and postprandial state also provide us with a different type of information. In Chapter 5 it is demonstrated that the global testing of pathways could provide a concise summary of the multiple univariate testing approach used in Chapter 4. In Chapter 6 it is discussed how the findings of this thesis increase our understanding of how to measure phenotypic flexibility as a proxy of health. In this thesis it is shown that the correlations between tissue and plasma metabolites are rather weak, emphasising the need to perform organ-specific studies. Availability of less invasive/painful sampling techniques and the use of small amounts of tissue would enable larger scale human studies on adipose tissue and skeletal muscle to more accurately define phenotypical shifts due to diet or lifestyle interventions. With respect to the assessment of phenotypical flexibility by omics approaches, significant complications can be expected in trying to relate plasma metabolism to PBMC gene expression. Organ-focussed approaches that integrate multiple omics levels using system biology approaches are considered to be a lot more promising

Measuring phenotypic flexibility by transcriptome time-course analyses during challenge tests before and after energy restriction

Metabolic challenge tests may be a valuable tool to magnify the effects of diet on health. The use of transcriptomics enables a more extensive characterization of the effects of diet. The question remains whether transcriptome time-course analyses during challenge tests will deliver more information on the effect of diet than a static fasting measurement. A dietary intervention known to improve health is energy restriction (ER). Seventy-two healthy, overweight men and women aged 50-65 were subjected to an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and a mixed-meal test (MMT) before and after 12 wk of a 20% ER diet or control diet. Whole-genome gene expression of peripheral blood mononuclear cells was performed before and after the intervention. This was done during fasting, during the OGTT at 30, 60, and 120 min, and during the MMT at 60, 120, 240, and 360 min. Upon ER, the OGTT resulted in a faster and more pronounced down-regulation in gene expression of oxidative phosphorylation, cell adhesion, and DNA replication compared with the control. The MMT showed less-consistent effects. The OGTT combined with transcriptomics can be used to measure dynamic cellular adaptation upon an intervention that cannot be determined with a static fasting measurement.-Van Bussel, I. P. G., Fazelzadeh, P., Frost, G. S., Rundle, M., Afman, L. A. Measuring phenotypic flexibility by transcriptome time-course analyses during challenge tests before and after energy restriction.</p

A role for leukocyte integrins and extracellular matrix remodeling of adipose tissue in the risk of weight regain after weight loss

Background: Weight loss (WL) is often followed by weight regain after an energy-restricted dietary intervention (DI). When people are following a diet, the volume of an adipocyte decreases by loss of triglycerides, which creates stress between the cell contents and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Previously, we observed that genetic variations in ECM genes are associated with an increased risk of weight regain. Objective: We investigated the relation between the expression of ECM genes during WL and a period of weight stabilization (WS) and the risk of weight regain. Design: In this randomized controlled trial, 61 healthy overweight or obese participants followed either a 5-wk very-low-calorie diet (VLCD; 500 kcal/d) or a 12-wk low-calorie diet (1250 kcal/d) (WL period) with a subsequent 4-wk WS period and a 9-mo follow-up. The WL and WS periods combined were considered the DI. Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsy samples were collected for microarray analysis. Gene expression changes for a broad set of ECM-related genes were correlated with the weight-regain percentage (WR%). Results: A total of 26 of the 277 genes were significantly correlated with WR% during WL, WS, or the DI periods. Most correlations were observed in the VLCD group during the WS period. Four genes code for leukocyte-specific receptors. These and other genes belong to a group of 26 genes, among which the expression changes were highly correlated (r ≥ 0.7, P ≤ 0.001). This group could be divided into 3 subclusters linking to 2 biological processes-leukocyte integrin gene activity and ECM remodeling-and a link to insulin sensitivity was also apparent. Conclusions: Our present findings indicate the importance of adipose tissue leukocytes for the risk of weight regain. ECM modification also seems to be involved, and we observed a link to insulin sensitivity. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01559415.</p

A role for leukocyte integrins and extracellular matrix remodeling of adipose tissue in the risk of weight regain after weight loss

Background: Weight loss (WL) is often followed by weight regain after an energy-restricted dietary intervention (DI). When people are following a diet, the volume of an adipocyte decreases by loss of triglycerides, which creates stress between the cell contents and the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). Previously, we observed that genetic variations in ECM genes are associated with an increased risk of weight regain. Objective: We investigated the relation between the expression of ECM genes during WL and a period of weight stabilization (WS) and the risk of weight regain. Design: In this randomized controlled trial, 61 healthy overweight or obese participants followed either a 5-wk very-low-calorie diet (VLCD; 500 kcal/d) or a 12-wk low-calorie diet (1250 kcal/d) (WL period) with a subsequent 4-wk WS period and a 9-mo follow-up. The WL and WS periods combined were considered the DI. Abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue biopsy samples were collected for microarray analysis. Gene expression changes for a broad set of ECM-related genes were correlated with the weight-regain percentage (WR%). Results: A total of 26 of the 277 genes were significantly correlated with WR% during WL, WS, or the DI periods. Most correlations were observed in the VLCD group during the WS period. Four genes code for leukocyte-specific receptors. These and other genes belong to a group of 26 genes, among which the expression changes were highly correlated (r ≥ 0.7, P ≤ 0.001). This group could be divided into 3 subclusters linking to 2 biological processes-leukocyte integrin gene activity and ECM remodeling-and a link to insulin sensitivity was also apparent. Conclusions: Our present findings indicate the importance of adipose tissue leukocytes for the risk of weight regain. ECM modification also seems to be involved, and we observed a link to insulin sensitivity. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT01559415.</p

Adipose tissue meal-derived fatty acid uptake before and after diet-induced weight loss in adults with overweight and obesity

Objective: This study investigated whether diet-induced weight loss alters indices of in vivo postprandial fat uptake in adipose tissue (AT) and whether these changes are associated with weight regain in adults with overweight and obesity. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 16 (6 male) individuals (BMI: 28-35 kg/m2) were randomized to either a low-calorie diet (1,250 kcal/d) for 12 weeks or a very-low-calorie diet (500 kcal/d) for 5 weeks (weight loss [WL] period) followed by a 4-week weight-stable (WS) period (together, the dietary intervention [DI] period) and a 9-month follow-up period. Arteriovenous difference measurements combined with stable isotope labeling ([U-13C] palmitate) of a mixed meal were used to determine postprandial fatty acid uptake in AT. Results: Body weight was significantly reduced during the WL period (-8.2±0.6 kg, P<0.001), remained stable during the WS period (0.4±0.3 kg, P=0.150), and increased during follow-up (3.5±0.8 kg, P=0.001). Meal-derived in vivo fatty acid uptake dynamics across AT and expression of genes important for fatty acid uptake, storage, and release were not significantly changed during the DI period. Conclusions: Subcutaneous AT does not appear prone to enhanced meal-derived fatty acid uptake after weight loss, nor were fatty acid uptake dynamics detected as related to weight regain

Adipose tissue meal-derived fatty acid uptake before and after diet-induced weight loss in adults with overweight and obesity

Objective: This study investigated whether diet-induced weight loss alters indices of in vivo postprandial fat uptake in adipose tissue (AT) and whether these changes are associated with weight regain in adults with overweight and obesity. Methods: In this randomized controlled trial, 16 (6 male) individuals (BMI: 28-35 kg/m2) were randomized to either a low-calorie diet (1,250 kcal/d) for 12 weeks or a very-low-calorie diet (500 kcal/d) for 5 weeks (weight loss [WL] period) followed by a 4-week weight-stable (WS) period (together, the dietary intervention [DI] period) and a 9-month follow-up period. Arteriovenous difference measurements combined with stable isotope labeling ([U-13C] palmitate) of a mixed meal were used to determine postprandial fatty acid uptake in AT. Results: Body weight was significantly reduced during the WL period (-8.2±0.6 kg, P<0.001), remained stable during the WS period (0.4±0.3 kg, P=0.150), and increased during follow-up (3.5±0.8 kg, P=0.001). Meal-derived in vivo fatty acid uptake dynamics across AT and expression of genes important for fatty acid uptake, storage, and release were not significantly changed during the DI period. Conclusions: Subcutaneous AT does not appear prone to enhanced meal-derived fatty acid uptake after weight loss, nor were fatty acid uptake dynamics detected as related to weight regain

Network Analysis of Metabolite GWAS Hits: Implication of CPS1 and the Urea Cycle in Weight Maintenance.

BACKGROUND AND SCOPE:Weight loss success is dependent on the ability to refrain from regaining the lost weight in time. This feature was shown to be largely variable among individuals, and these differences, with their underlying molecular processes, are diverse and not completely elucidated. Altered plasma metabolites concentration could partly explain weight loss maintenance mechanisms. In the present work, a systems biology approach has been applied to investigate the potential mechanisms involved in weight loss maintenance within the Diogenes weight-loss intervention study. METHODS AND RESULTS:A genome wide association study identified SNPs associated with plasma glycine levels within the CPS1 (Carbamoyl-Phosphate Synthase 1) gene (rs10206976, p-value = 4.709e-11 and rs12613336, p-value = 1.368e-08). Furthermore, gene expression in the adipose tissue showed that CPS1 expression levels were associated with successful weight maintenance and with several SNPs within CPS1 (cis-eQTL). In order to contextualize these results, a gene-metabolite interaction network of CPS1 and glycine has been built and analyzed, showing functional enrichment in genes involved in lipid metabolism and one carbon pool by folate pathways. CONCLUSIONS:CPS1 is the rate-limiting enzyme for the urea cycle, catalyzing carbamoyl phosphate from ammonia and bicarbonate in the mitochondria. Glycine and CPS1 are connected through the one-carbon pool by the folate pathway and the urea cycle. Furthermore, glycine could be linked to metabolic health and insulin sensitivity through the betaine osmolyte. These considerations, and the results from the present study, highlight a possible role of CPS1 and related pathways in weight loss maintenance, suggesting that it might be partly genetically determined in humans

Weight loss moderately affects the mixed meal challenge response of the plasma metabolome and transcriptome of peripheral blood mononuclear cells in abdominally obese subjects

Introduction: The response to dietary challenges has been proposed as a more accurate measure of metabolic health than static measurements performed in the fasted state. This has prompted many groups to explore the potential of dietary challenge tests for assessment of diet and lifestyle induced shifts in metabolic phenotype. Objectives: We examined whether the response to a mixed-meal challenge could provide a readout for a weight loss (WL)-induced phenotype shift in abdominally obese male subjects. The underlying assumption of a mixed meal challenge is that it triggers all aspects of phenotypic flexibility and provokes a more prolonged insulin response, possibly allowing for better differentiation between individuals. Methods: Abdominally obese men (n = 29, BMI = 30.3 ± 2.4 kg/m2) received a mixed-meal challenge prior to and after an 8-week WL or no-WL control intervention. Lean subjects (n = 15, BMI = 23.0 ± 2.0 kg/m2) only received the mixed meal challenge at baseline to have a benchmark for WL-induced phenotype shifts. Results: Levels of several plasma metabolites were significantly different between lean and abdominally obese at baseline as well as during postprandial metabolic responses. Genes related to oxidative phosphorylation in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) were expressed at higher levels in abdominally obese subjects as compared to lean subjects at fasting, which was partially reverted after WL. The impact of WL on the postprandial response was modest, both at the metabolic and gene expression level in PBMCs. Conclusion: We conclude that mixed-meal challenges are not necessarily superior to measurements in the fasted state to assess metabolic health. Furthermore, the mechanisms accounting for the observed differences between lean and abdominally obese in the fasted state are different from those underlying the dissimilarity observed during the postprandial response

Diet-induced weight loss reduces postprandial dicarbonyl stress in abdominally obese men : Secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial

Aims: Dicarbonyl compounds contribute to the formation of advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) and the development of insulin resistance and vascular complications. Dicarbonyl stress may already be detrimental in obesity. We evaluated whether diet-induced weight loss can effectively reverse dicarbonyl stress in abdominally obese men. Materials and methods: Plasma samples were collected from lean (n = 25) and abdominally obese men (n = 52) in the fasting state, and during a mixed meal test (MMT). Abdominally obese men were randomized to 8 weeks of dietary weight loss or habitual diet, followed by a second MMT. The α-dicarbonyls methylglyoxal (MGO), glyoxal (GO) and 3-deoxyglucosone (3-DG) and AGEs were measured by UPLC-MS/MS. Skin autofluorescence (SAF) was measured using the AGE reader. T-tests were used for the cross-sectional analysis and ANCOVA to assess the treatment effect. Results: Postprandial glucose, MGO and 3-DG concentrations were higher in obese men as compared to lean men (p < 0.05 for all). Fasting dicarbonyls, AGEs, and SAF were not different between lean and obese men. After the weight loss intervention, fasting MGO levels tended to decrease by 25 nmol/L (95%-CI: -51-0.5; p = 0.054). Postprandial dicarbonyls were decreased after weight loss as compared to the control group: iAUC of MGO decreased by 57% (5280 nmol/L∙min; 95%-CI: 33–10526; p = 0.049), of GO by 66% (11,329 nmol/L∙min; 95%-CI: 495–22162; p = 0.041), and of 3-DG by 45% (20,175 nmol/L∙min; 95%-CI: 5351–35000; p = 0.009). AGEs and SAF did not change significantly after weight loss. Conclusion: Abdominal obesity is characterized by increased postprandial dicarbonyl stress, which can be reduced by a weight loss intervention. Registered under ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier no. NCT01675401.</p