Application of Metabolomics to Study Effects of Bariatric Surgery

Abstract

Bariatric surgery was born in the 1950s at the University of Minnesota. From this time, it continues to evolve and, by the same token, gives new or better possibilities to treat not only obesity but also associated comorbidities. Metabolomics is also a relatively young science discipline, and similarly, it shows great potential for the comprehensive study of the dynamic alterations of the metabolome. It has been widely used in medicine, biology studies, biomarker discovery, and prognostic evaluations. Currently, several dozen metabolomics studies were performed to study the effects of bariatric surgery. LC-MS and NMR are the most frequently used techniques to study main effects of RYGB or SG. Research has yield many interesting results involving not only clinical parameters but also molecular modulations. Detected changes pertain to amino acid, lipids, carbohydrates, or gut microbiota alterations. It proves that including bariatric surgery to metabolic surgery is warranted. However, many molecular modulations after those procedures remain unexplained. Therefore, application of metabolomics to study this field seems to be a proper solution. New findings can suggest new directions of surgery technics modifications, contribute to broadening knowledge about obesity and diseases related to it, and perhaps develop nonsurgical methods of treatment in the future.

Figure 1

Summary of published studies.

Figure 2

Summary of pathway analysis. The following are the top 25 identified statistically significant pathways: 1: aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis; 2: glycine, serine, and threonine metabolism; 3: nitrogen metabolism; 4: phenylalanine metabolism; 5: cysteine and methionine metabolism; 6: citrate cycle (TCA cycle); 7: taurine and hypotaurine metabolism; 8: valine, leucine, and isoleucine biosyntheses; 9: propanoate metabolism; 10: nicotinate and nicotinamide metabolism; 11: alanine, aspartate, and glutamate metabolism; 12: arginine and proline metabolism; 13: synthesis and degradation of ketone bodies; 14: pyrimidine metabolism; 15: methane metabolism; 16: glutathione metabolism; 17: glyoxylate and dicarboxylate metabolism; 18: pyruvate metabolism; 19: purine metabolism; 20: pantothenate and CoA biosyntheses; 21: d-glutamine and d-glutamate metabolism; 22: valine, leucine, and isoleucine degradation; 23: butanoate metabolism; 24: glycolysis or gluconeogenesis; 25: linoleic acid metabolism.