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. 2023 Jun 6;24(12):9789.
doi: 10.3390/ijms24129789.

LC/MS-Based Untargeted Metabolomics Study in Women with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Associated with Morbid Obesity

Laia Bertran  1 , Jordi Capellades  2 , Sonia Abelló  3 , Joan Durán-Bertran  1 , Carmen Aguilar  1 , Salomé Martinez  1 , Fàtima Sabench  1   4 , Xavier Correig  2   5 , Oscar Yanes  2   5 , Teresa Auguet  1 , Cristóbal Richart  1
Affiliations

LC/MS-Based Untargeted Metabolomics Study in Women with Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Associated with Morbid Obesity

Laia Bertran et al. Int J Mol Sci. .

Abstract

This study investigated the importance of a metabolomic analysis in a complex disease such as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) associated with obesity. Using an untargeted metabolomics technique, we studied blood metabolites in 216 morbidly obese women with liver histological diagnosis. A total of 172 patients were diagnosed with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and 44 were diagnosed with normal liver (NL). Patients with NAFLD were classified into simple steatosis (n = 66) and NASH (n = 106) categories. A comparative analysis of metabolites levels between NASH and NL demonstrated significant differences in lipid metabolites and derivatives, mainly from the phospholipid group. In NASH, there were increased levels of several phosphatidylinositols and phosphatidylethanolamines, as well as isolated metabolites such as diacylglycerol 34:1, lyso-phosphatidylethanolamine 20:3 and sphingomyelin 38:1. By contrast, there were decreased levels of acylcarnitines, sphingomyelins and linoleic acid. These findings may facilitate identification studies of the main pathogenic metabolic pathways related to NASH and may also have a possible applicability in a panel of metabolites to be used as biomarkers in future algorithms of the disease diagnosis and its follow-up. Further confirmatory studies in groups with different ages and sexes are necessary.

Keywords: lipidomics; metabolomics; morbid obesity; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Heat map of the differently concentrated metabolites in the studied comparatives. NAFLD, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; NL, normal liver; SS, simple steatosis; NASH, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; SM, sphingomyelins; MG, monoacylglycerol; DG, diacylglycerol; PC, phosphatidylcholine; PI, phosphatidylinositol; LPE, lyso-phosphatidylethanolamine; PE, phosphatidylethanolamine. Green represents mostly higher levels and yellow represents mostly lower levels. This heat map was created using GraphPad Prism (version 7).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Principal component analysis (PCA) of significantly different concentrated metabolites between groups (NL (green triangles) and NAFLD (SS (blue circles) and NASH (red circles)); PC, principal component; NL, normal liver; SS, simple steatosis; NASH, nonalcoholic steatohepatitis; NAFLD, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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