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Research Paper|Volume 13, Issue 1|pp 944—956

Metabolic signatures of muscle mass loss in an elderly Taiwanese population

Chi-Jen Lo1, Yu-Shien Ko2,3, Su-Wei Chang4, Hsiang-Yu Tang1, Cheng-Yu Huang1, Yu-Chen Huang3,5, Hung-Yao Ho1,6,7, Chih-Ming Lin3,8,9, Mei-Ling Cheng1,7,10
  • 1Metabolomics Core Laboratory, Healthy Aging Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 2Division of Cardiology, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei 105, Taiwan
  • 3College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 4Clinical Informatics and Medical Statistics Research Center, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 5Department of Thoracic Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 6Graduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 7Clinical Metabolomics Core Laboratory, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 8Division of Internal Medicine, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei 105, Taiwan
  • 9Department of Health Management, Chang Gung Health and Culture Village, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
  • 10Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan 333, Taiwan
Received: October 25, 2019Accepted: October 5, 2020Published: December 19, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202209

Copyright: © 2020 Lo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

To identify the association between metabolites and muscle mass in 305 elderly Taiwanese subjects, we conducted a multivariate analysis of 153 plasma samples. Based on appendicular skeletal muscle mass index (ASMI) quartiles, female and male participants were divided into four groups. Quartile 4 (Men: 5.67±0.35, Women: 4.70±0.32 Kg/m2) and quartile 1 (Men: 7.60±0.29, Women: 6.56±0.53 Kg/m2) represented low muscle mass and control groups, respectively. After multivariable adjustment, except for physical function, we found that blood urea nitrogen, creatinine, and age were associated with ASMI in men. However, only triglyceride level was related to ASMI in women. The multiple logistic regression models were used to analyze in each baseline characteristic and metabolite concentration. After the adjustment, we identify amino acid-related metabolites and show that glutamate levels in women and alpha-aminoadipate, Dopa, and citrulline/ornithine levels in men are gender-specific metabolic signatures of muscle mass loss.