Associations between sheep meat intake frequency and blood plasma levels of metabolites and lipoproteins in healthy Uzbek adults

Diyora Kurmaeva, Yongxin Ye, Inal Bakhytkyzy, Violetta Aru, Dilbar Dalimova, Shahlo Turdikulova, Lars Ove Dragsted, Søren Balling Engelsen, Bekzod Khakimov*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

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Abstract

Introduction: Uzbekistan is one of the countries with the highest number of diet-related chronic diseases, which is believed to be associated with high animal fat intake. Sheep meat is high in fats (~ 5% in muscle), including saturated and monounsaturated fatty acids, and it contains nearly twice the higher amounts of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and conjugated linoleic acids compared to beef. Nevertheless, sheep meat is considered health promoting by the locals in Uzbekistan and it accounts for around 1/3 of red meat intake in the country.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to apply a metabolomics approach to investigate if sheep meat intake frequency (SMIF) is associated with alterations in fasting blood plasma metabolites and lipoproteins in healthy Uzbek adults.

Methods: The study included 263 subjects, 149 females and 114 males. For each subject a food intake questionnaire, including SMIF, was recorded and fasting blood plasma samples were collected for metabolomics. Blood plasma metabolites and lipoprotein concentrations were determined using 1H NMR spectroscopy.

Results and Conclusion: The results showed that SMIF was confounded by nationality, sex, body mass index (BMI), age, intake frequency of total meat and fish in ascending order (p < 0.01). Multivariate and univariate data analyses showed differences in the levels of plasma metabolites and lipoproteins with respect to SMIF. The effect of SMIF after statistical adjustment by nationality, sex, BMI, age, intake frequency of total meat and fish decreased but remained significant. Pyruvic acid, phenylalanine, ornithine, and acetic acid remained significantly lower in the high SMIF group, whereas choline, asparagine, and dimethylglycine showed an increasing trend. Levels of cholesterol, apolipoprotein A1, as well as low- and high-density lipoprotein subfractions all displayed a decreasing trend with increased SMIF although the difference were not significant after FDR correction.

Original languageEnglish
Article number46
JournalMetabolomics
Volume19
Issue number5
Number of pages14
ISSN1573-3882
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

© 2023. The Author(s).

Keywords

  • Faculty of Science
  • Meat intake
  • Sheep meat
  • NMR
  • Metabolomics
  • Lipoproteins
  • Choline
  • Uzbekistan

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