UCD Institute of Food and Health, School of Agriculture and Food Science, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
UCD Conway Institute, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2021 May 8;113(5):1232-1240. doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqaa378.
Early applications of metabolomics in nutrition and health research identified associations between dietary patterns and metabolomic profiles. Twin studies show that diet-related phenotypes and diet-associated metabolites are influenced by genes. However, studies have not examined whether diet-metabolite associations are explained by genetic or environmental factors and whether these associations are reproducible over multiple time points.
This research aims to examine the genetic and environmental factors influencing covariation in diet-metabolite associations that are reproducible over time in healthy twins.
The UCD Twin Study is a semi-longitudinal classic twin study that collected repeated dietary, anthropometric, and urinary data over 2 months. Correlation analysis identified associations between diet quality measured using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI) and urinary metabolomic profiles at 3 time points. Diet-associated metabolites were examined using linear regression to identify those significantly influenced by familial factors between twins and those significantly influenced by unique factors. Cholesky decomposition modeling quantified the genetic and environmental path coefficients through associated dietary components onto the metabolites.
The HEI was associated with 14 urinary metabolites across 3 metabolomic profiles (r: ±0.15-0.49). For 8 diet-metabolite associations, genetic or shared environmental factors influencing HEI component scores significantly influenced variation in metabolites (β: 0.40-0.52). A significant relation was observed between dietary intakes of whole grain and acetoacetate (β: -0.50, P < 0.001) and β-hydroxybutyrate (β: -0.46, P < 0.001), as well as intakes of saturated fat and acetoacetate (β: 0.47, P < 0.001) and β-hydroxybutyrate (β: 0.52, P < 0.001). For these diet-metabolite associations a common shared environmental factor explained 66-69% of variance in the metabolites.
This study shows that diet-metabolite associations are reproducible in 3 urinary metabolomic profiles. Components of the HEI covary with metabolites, and covariation is largely due to the shared environment.
代谢组学在营养与健康研究中的早期应用确定了饮食模式与代谢组学特征之间的关联。双胞胎研究表明，与饮食相关的表型和与饮食相关的代谢物受基因影响。然而，研究尚未检验饮食-代谢物关联是否由遗传或环境因素解释，以及这些关联是否在多个时间点具有可重复性。
本研究旨在检验遗传和环境因素对健康双胞胎中随时间变化的可重复的饮食-代谢物关联的影响。
UCD 双胞胎研究是一项半纵向经典双胞胎研究，在 2 个月内重复收集饮食、人体测量和尿液数据。相关性分析确定了使用健康饮食指数（HEI）衡量的饮食质量与 3 个时间点的尿液代谢组学特征之间的关联。线性回归用于检查与家族因素相关的代谢物，以确定那些在双胞胎之间受家族因素显著影响的代谢物和那些受独特因素显著影响的代谢物。Cholesky 分解模型通过相关饮食成分将遗传和环境路径系数量化为代谢物。
HEI 与 3 种代谢组学特征中的 14 种尿液代谢物相关（r：±0.15-0.49）。对于 8 种饮食-代谢物关联，影响 HEI 成分得分的遗传或共享环境因素显著影响代谢物的变化（β：0.40-0.52）。观察到全谷物和乙酰乙酸（β：-0.50，P<0.001）以及β-羟基丁酸（β：-0.46，P<0.001）以及饱和脂肪和乙酰乙酸（β：0.47，P<0.001）和β-羟基丁酸（β：0.52，P<0.001）之间的饮食摄入与饮食摄入之间存在显著关系。对于这些饮食-代谢物关联，一个共同的共享环境因素解释了代谢物中 66-69%的方差。
本研究表明，3 种尿液代谢组学特征中的饮食-代谢物关联具有可重复性。HEI 的成分与代谢物相关，且变异性主要归因于共享环境。
