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Meta-Analysis
. 2023 Sep 28;15(19):4191.
doi: 10.3390/nu15194191.

Differential Metabolites in Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Zeqi Liao  1 , Xu Han  2 , Yuhe Wang  1 , Jingru Shi  1 , Yuanyue Zhang  1 , Hongyan Zhao  1 , Lei Zhang  3 , Miao Jiang  2 , Meijie Liu  1
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Differential Metabolites in Osteoarthritis: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Zeqi Liao et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

(1) Many studies have attempted to utilize metabolomic approaches to explore potential biomarkers for the early detection of osteoarthritis (OA), but consistent and high-level evidence is still lacking. In this study, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of differential small molecule metabolites between OA patients and healthy individuals to screen promising candidates from a large number of samples with the aim of informing future prospective studies. (2) Methods: We searched the EMBASE, the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, Wan Fang Data, VIP Date, and CNKI up to 11 August 2022, and selected relevant records based on inclusion criteria. The risk of bias was assessed using the Newcastle-Ottawa quality assessment scale. We performed qualitative synthesis by counting the frequencies of changing directions and conducted meta-analyses using the random effects model and the fixed-effects model to calculate the mean difference and 95% confidence interval. (3) Results: A total of 3798 records were identified and 13 studies with 495 participants were included. In the 13 studies, 132 kinds of small molecule differential metabolites were extracted, 58 increased, 57 decreased and 17 had direction conflicts. Among them, 37 metabolites appeared more than twice. The results of meta-analyses among four studies showed that three metabolites increased, and eight metabolites decreased compared to healthy controls (HC). (4) Conclusions: The main differential metabolites between OA and healthy subjects were amino acids (AAs) and their derivatives, including tryptophan, lysine, leucine, proline, phenylalanine, glutamine, dimethylglycine, citrulline, asparagine, acetylcarnitine and creatinine (muscle metabolic products), which could be potential biomarkers for predicting OA.

Keywords: differential metabolites; meta-analysis; metabolomics; osteoarthritis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram for the assessment of studies identified in the systematic review.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The frequency of 37 differential small molecule metabolites between OA and HC.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plots for differential small molecule metabolites (μmol/L) between OA and HC. Data from references [38,44,47,48]. Note: The small green squares represent the point estimates for each study, and the black diamond blocks represent the combined values of the study results.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Forest plots for differential small molecule metabolites (μmol/L) between OA and HC. Data from references [38,44,47,48]. Note: The small green squares represent the point estimates for each study, and the black diamond blocks represent the combined values of the study results.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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