Metabolic fingerprint of insulin resistance in human polymorphonuclear leucocytes

PLoS One. 2018 Jul 13;13(7):e0199351. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0199351. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

The present study was aimed at determining the metabolic profile of PMNs in obese subjects, and to explore its potential relationship with insulin resistance (IR). To achieve this goal, a pilot clinical study was performed using PMNs from 17 patients with obesity and IR, and 17 lean controls without IR, which was validated in an additional smaller cohort (consisting of 10 patients and 10 controls). PMNs were isolated from peripheral blood and nuclear magnetic resonance was used to perform the metabolomic analysis. A total of 48 metabolites were quantified. The main metabolic change found in PMNs was a significant increase in 2-aminoisobutyric acid with a direct correlation with HOMA-IR (p<0.001), BMI (p<0.000001) and waist circumference (p<0.000001). By contrast, a decrease of 3-hydroxyisovalerate was observed with an inverse correlation with HOMA-IR (p = 0.001), BMI (p = 0.001) and waist circumference (p = 0.0001). Notably, the metabolic profile in plasma was different than that obtained in PMNs. In summary, our results suggest that the change in 3-hydroxyisovalerate and 2-aminoisobutyric is the key metabolic fingerprint in PMNs of obese subjects with IR. In addition, our methodology could be an easy and reliable tool for monitoring the effect of treatments in the setting of precision medicine.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Biomarkers
  • Body Mass Index
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Energy Metabolism*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Insulin / blood
  • Insulin / metabolism
  • Insulin Resistance*
  • Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy
  • Male
  • Metabolome
  • Metabolomics / methods
  • Neutrophils / metabolism*
  • Obesity / metabolism
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Insulin

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Carlos III Health Institute and the European Regional Development Fund (PI16/02064, CP13/00252) to JRH and the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (SAF2014-53977-R and RD12/0036/0025) to MP. In addition, JRH is recipient of a contract from the Ministry of Health of the Carlos III Health Institute.