Glycerophosphocholine Metabolites and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Adolescents: A Cohort Study

Background: Glycerophosphocholine (GPC) metabolites modulate atherosclerosis and thus risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Preclinical CVD may start during adolescence. Here, we used targeted serum lipidomics to identify a new panel of GPCs, and tested whether any of these GPCs are associated, in adolescence, with classical risk factors of CVD, namely excess visceral fat (VF), elevated blood pressure, insulin resistance, and atherogenic dyslipidemia. Methods: We studied a population-based sample of 990 adolescents (12–18 years, 48% male), as part of the Saguenay Youth Study. Using liquid chromatography-electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry, we identified 69 serum GPCs within the 450 to 680 m/z range. We measured VF with MRI. Results: We identified several novel GPCs that were associated with multiple CVD risk factors. Most significantly, PC16:0/2:0 was negatively associated with VF (P=1.4×10–19), blood pressure (P=7.7×10–5), and fasting triacylglycerols (P=9.0×10–5), and PC14:1/0:0 was positively associated with VF (P=3.0×10–7), fasting insulin (P=5.4×10–32), and triacylglycerols (P=1.4×10–29). The Sobel test of mediation revealed that both GPCs mediated their respective relations between VF (as a potential primary exposure) and CVD risk factors (as outcomes, P values<1.3×10–3). Furthermore, a GPC shown recently to predict incident coronary heart disease in older adults, PC18:2/0:0, was associated with several CVD risk factors in adolescents; these associations were less strong than those with the newly identified GPCs. Conclusions: We identified novel GPCs strongly associated with multiple CVD risk factors in adolescents. These GPCs may be sensitive indicators of obesity-related risk for CVD outcomes in adults, and may improve biological understanding of CVD risk.

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