Metabolomic analysis reveals decreased skeletal muscle amino acid content and altered fatty acid handling in obese humans

Objective—Investigate the effects of obesity and high fat diet (HFD) exposure on fatty acid oxidation and TCA cycle intermediates and amino acids in skeletal muscle to better characterize energy metabolism. Design and Methods—Plasma and skeletal muscle metabolomic profiles were measured from lean and obese males before and after a 5 day HFD in the 4h post-prandial condition. Results—At both time points, plasma short-chain acylcarnitine species (SCAC) were higher in the obese subjects, while the amino acids glycine, histidine, methionine, and citrulline were lower in skeletal muscle of obese subjects. Skeletal muscle medium-chain acylcarnitines (MCAC) C6, C8, C10:2, C10:1, C10, and C12:1 increased in obese subjects, but decreased in lean subjects, from Preto Post-HFD. Plasma content of C10:1 was also decreased in lean, but increased in the obese subjects from Preto Post-HFD. CD36 increased from Preto Post-HFD in obese but not lean subjects. Users may view, print, copy, and download text and data-mine the content in such documents, for the purposes of academic research, subject always to the full Conditions of use:http://www.nature.com/authors/editorial_policies/license.html#terms Corresponding Author: Kristen E. Boyle, PhD Department of Pediatrics University of Colorado Denver MS C225 12700 E. 19th Ave, Aurora, CO 80045 Tel: 303-724-5969 Fax: 303-724-6636 [email protected]. Competing interests: the authors have no competing interests HHS Public Access Author manuscript Obesity (Silver Spring). Author manuscript; available in PMC 2016 May 01. Published in final edited form as: Obesity (Silver Spring). 2015 May ; 23(5): 981–988. doi:10.1002/oby.21046. A uhor M anscript