Urinary metabolic profile predicts high-fat diet sensitivity in the C57Bl6/J mouse

To prevent the development of adiposity-associated metabolic diseases, early biomarkers are needed. Such markers could bring insight to understand the complexity of susceptibility to obesity. Urine and plasma metabolomics fingerprints have been successfully associated with metabolic dysfunctions. Fat resistance (FR) was found to be associated with higher urinary levels of acylglycines and leucine. However, no differences were observed before the diet switch. In this context, we aimed at characterizing metabolic signatures predictive of resistance or sensitivity to fat in the C57Bl6/J mouse model. Urinary metabolic profiles of FR (n = 15) and fat sensitivity (FS) mice (n = 14) were performed on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Urinary and plasma metabolic profiles were first collected at baseline (during low-fat diet), then after 10 weeks of high-fat (HF) feeding. Mice were sorted a posteriori into FS and FR based on their final adiposity. After HF feeding for 10 weeks, FS mice tended to have lower plasma levels of β-hydroxybutyrate than FR ones. Urinary metabolic profiles showed that baseline levels of octanoylglycine, leucine and valine were significantly lower in FS mice. Moreover, expressions in the adipose tissue of Baat and Glyat mRNA were lower in FS than in FR mice. In muscle, mRNA encoding CaD and UbE2b tended to be lower in FS mice than in FR mice (P = .056 and P = .071, respectively). The data show that lower levels of urinary octanoylglycine, leucine and valine are potential predictive biomarkers of FS and could be related to a lower stimulation in adipose acyl-coenzyme A conjugation to glycine and to muscle protein breakdown.

Graphical AbstractFigure optionsDownload high-quality image (88 K)Download as PowerPoint slide