Metabolic profiling of MRI-measured liver fat in the UK Biobank.
Gnatiuc Friedrichs L., Trichia E., Aguilar-Ramirez D., Preiss D.
OBJECTIVE: Liver fat associates with obesity-related metabolic disturbances and may precede incident diseases. Metabolomic profiles of liver fat in the UK Biobank were investigated. METHODS: Regression models assessed the associations between 180 metabolites and proton density liver fat fraction (PDFF) measured 5 years later through magnetic resonance imaging, as the difference (in SD units) of each log metabolite measure with 1-SD higher PDFF among those without chronic disease and not taking statins, and by diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. RESULTS: After accounting for confounders, multiple metabolites were associated positively with liver fat (p