Amino Acid and Biogenic Amine Profile Deviations in an Oral Glucose Tolerance Test: A Comparison between Healthy and Hyperlipidaemia Individuals Based on Targeted Metabolomics

Hyperlipidemia (HLP) is characterized by a disturbance in lipid metabolism and is a primary risk factor for the development of insulin resistance (IR) and a well-established risk factor for cardiovascular disease and atherosclerosis. The aim of this work was to investigate the changes in postprandial amino acid and biogenic amine profiles provoked by an oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in HLP patients using targeted metabolomics. We used ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-triple quadrupole mass spectrometry to analyze the serum amino acid and biogenic amine profiles of 35 control and 35 HLP subjects during an OGTT. The amino acid and biogenic amine profiles from 30 HLP subjects were detected as independent samples to validate the changes in the metabolites. There were differences in the amino acid and biogenic amine profiles between the HLP individuals and the healthy controls at baseline and after the OGTT. The per cent changes of 13 metabolites from fasting to the 2 h samples during the OGTT in the HLP patients were significantly different from those of the healthy controls. The lipid parameters were associated with the changes in valine, isoleucine, creatine, creatinine, dimethylglycine, asparagine, serine, and tyrosine (all p < 0.05) during the OGTT in the HLP group. The postprandial changes in isoleucine and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) during the OGTT were positively associated with the homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR; all p < 0.05) in the HLP group. Elevated oxidative stress and disordered energy metabolism during OGTTs are important characteristics of metabolic perturbations in HLP. Our findings offer new insights into the complex physiological regulation of metabolism during the OGTT in HLP.