ArticleMetabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society2014
Human metabolic correlates of body mass index.
Article in Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 129 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
129 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 186 citations in OpenAlex.
- Are we close to defining a metabolomic signature of human obesity? A systematic review of metabolomics studies.Metabolomics : Official journal of the Metabolomic Society · 2019Pooled it
- P4 medicine and osteoporosis: a systematic review.Wiener klinische Wochenschrift · 2016Pooled it
- Plasma metabolite profiles associated with the World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research lifestyle score and future risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.Cardiovascular diabetology · 2023Trial
- Body Composition and Metabolomics in the Alberta Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention Trial.The Journal of nutrition · 2022Trial
- Metabolomics and cancer preventive behaviors in the BC Generations Project.Scientific reports · 2021Trial
- Plasma fatty acyl-carnitines during 8 weeks of overfeeding: relation to diet energy expenditure and body composition: the PROOF study.Metabolism: clinical and experimental · 2018Trial
- Untargeted metabolomic on urine samples after α-lipoic acid and/or eicosapentaenoic acid supplementation in healthy overweight/obese women.Lipids in health and disease · 2018Trial
- Reliability of Serum Metabolites over a Two-Year Period: A Targeted Metabolomic Approach in Fasting and Non-Fasting Samples from EPIC.PloS one · 2015Trial
- Lipid-dominated metabolites mediate the association between low body mass index and esophageal malignancy: a population-based nested case-control study.BMC cancer · 2026Article
- Mass Spectrometry-Based Metabolomics in Pediatric Health and Disease.Metabolites · 2026Review
- Tryptophan Metabolism in Obesity: Pathways, Mechanisms, and Therapeutic Perspectives.Current medical science · 2025Review
- Body mass index-defined overweight (but not obese) correlates with better postoperative prognosis in colorectal cancer.Journal of gastrointestinal oncology · 2025Article
- Interventional approaches to combat obesity: Exploring the metabolomic signature of weight loss trials.Metabolism open · 2025Review
- Metabolomic signatures of hypocaloric dietary interventions associate with breast cancer risk in the Nurses' Health Study II.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2025Article
- Multiomics insight into the role of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists in heart failure.ESC heart failure · 2025Article
- Body mass index adjustments in children with early onset scoliosis: arm span BMI.Spine deformity · 2025Article
- MetAssimulo 2.0: a web app for simulating realistic 1D and 2D metabolomic 1H NMR spectra.Bioinformatics (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Integrated multiomic profiling of tail adipose tissue highlights novel genes, lipids, and metabolites involved in tail fat deposition in sheep.BMC genomics · 2025Article
- The Primacy of Adipose Tissue Gene Expression and Plasma Lipidome in Cardiometabolic Disease in Persons With HIV.The Journal of infectious diseases · 2025Observational
- Metabolites and lipid species mediate the associations of adiposity in childhood and early adulthood with mammographic breast density in premenopausal women.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2025Article
69 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
18 authors at 7 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundA high body mass index (BMI) is a major risk factor for several chronic diseases, but the biology underlying these associations is not well-understood. Dyslipidemia, inflammation, and elevated levels of growth factors and sex steroid hormones explain some of the increased disease risk, but other metabolic factors not yet identified may also play a role.
designIn order to discover novel metabolic biomarkers of BMI, we used non-targeted metabolomics to assay 317 metabolites in blood samples from 947 participants and examined the cross-sectional associations between metabolite levels and BMI. Participants were from three studies in the United States and China. Height, weight, and potential confounders were ascertained by questionnaire (US studies) or direct measurement (Chinese study). Metabolite levels were measured using liquid-phase chromatography and gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. We evaluated study-specific associations using linear regression, adjusted for age, gender, and smoking, and we estimated combined associations using random effects meta-analysis.
resultsThe meta-analysis revealed 37 metabolites significantly associated with BMI, including 19 lipids, 12 amino acids, and 6 others, at the Bonferroni significance threshold (p<0.00016). Eighteen of these associations had not been previously reported, including histidine, an amino acid neurotransmitter, and butyrylcarnitine, a lipid marker of whole-body fatty acid oxidation. Heterogeneity by study was minimal (all P
conclusionThese findings establish a baseline for the BMI metabolome, and suggest new targets for researchers attempting to clarify mechanistic links between high BMIs and disease risk.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.