Exploring the mediating effects of amino acids on BMI and gestational diabetes mellitus: a longitudinal population-based cohort study

作者：Lijuan Wang, Haiyan Wang, Xiaoyan Gou, Pengsheng Li, Dazhi Fan, Fang Huang, Dandan Yu, Xingni Yang, Dongmei Suo, Zheng­ping Liu, Gengdong Chen, Zixing Zhou · 发表于：Frontiers in Endocrinology · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3389/fendo.2025.1502678 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Gestational Diabetes Research and Management、Folate and B Vitamins Research、Pregnancy and preeclampsia studies

Objective: To investigate the associations between pre-pregnancy BMI, amino acid metabolism in early pregnancy, and glucose levels/gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) in later pregnancy. We also examined the mediating effects of amino acids on BMI and glucose. Methods: The cohort study examined the association between BMI, first-trimester amino acids, and glucose/GDM among 1074 pregnant women. Regression analyses detected changes in amino acid levels and glucose measurements from oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) at the 10th, 50th, and 90th percentiles. A mediation analysis was conducted to determine if amino acids mediated the relationship between BMI and glucose/GDM. Results: Four essential amino acid concentrations (leucine, phenylalanine, threonine, and valine) increased significantly with increasing BMI (P < 0.05). Additionally, overweight women exhibited higher levels of non-essential amino acids (alanine, arginine, asparagine, aspartate, proline, tyrosine) and ornithine than underweight and normal-weight women. Women with GDM demonstrated higher levels of leucine, valine, alanine, asparagine, proline, and tyrosine compared to those without (P < 0.05). Fasting blood glucose (OGTT0) increased by 0.07 mmol/L when alanine levels increased by 50%. Similarly, increasing asparagine and leucine levels by 50% led to a 0.24 mmol/L increase in 1-hour postprandial blood glucose (OGTT1). A 50% rise in alanine, asparagine, and leucine levels led to average increases of 0.31, 0.19, ...