Obesity has reached epidemic proportions, emphasizing the importance of reliable biomarkers for detecting early metabolic alterations and enabling early preventative interventions. However, our understanding of the molecular mechanisms and specific lipid species associated with childhood obesity remains limited. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate plasma lipidomic signatures as potential biomarkers for adolescent obesity. A total of 103 individuals comprising overweight/obese (n = 46) and normal weight (n = 57) were randomly chosen from the baseline ORANGE (Obesity Reduction and Noncommunicable Disease Awareness through Group Education) cohort, having been followed up for a median of 7.1 years. Plasma lipidomic profiling was performed using the UHPLC-HRMS method. We used three different models adjusted for clinical covariates to analyze the data. Clustering methods were used to define metabotypes, which allowed for the stratification of subjects into subgroups with similar clinical and metabolic profiles. We observed that lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) species like LPC.16.0, LPC.18.3, LPC.18.1, and LPC.20.3 were significantly (p < 0.05) associated with baseline and follow-up BMI in adolescent obesity. The association of LPC species with BMI remained consistently significant even after adjusting for potential confounders. Moreover, applying metabotyping using hierarchical clustering provided insights into the metabolic heterogeneity within the normal and obese groups, distinguishing metabolically healthy individuals from those with unhealthy metabolic profiles. The specific LPC levels were found to be altered and increased in childhood obesity, particularly during the follow-up. These findings suggest that LPC species hold promise as potential biomarkers of obesity in adolescents, including healthy and unhealthy metabolic profiles.

中文翻译：

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肥胖青少年溶血磷脂酰胆碱的循环水平：横断面和前瞻性脂质组学分析的结果

肥胖已达到流行病的程度，这凸显了可靠的生物标志物对于检测早期代谢变化和实现早期预防性干预的重要性。然而，我们对与儿童肥胖相关的分子机制和特定脂质种类的了解仍然有限。因此，本研究的目的是研究血浆脂质组学特征作为青少年肥胖的潜在生物标志物。从基线 ORANGE（通过团体教育减少肥胖和非传染性疾病意识）队列中随机选择了总共 103 名超重/肥胖 (n = 46) 和正常体重 (n = 57) 的个体，随访时间中位数为7.1年。使用 UHPLC-HRMS 方法进行血浆脂质组学分析。我们使用根据临床协变量调整的三种不同模型来分析数据。聚类方法用于定义代谢型，这允许将受试者分层为具有相似临床和代谢特征的亚组。我们观察到溶血磷脂酰胆碱 (LPC) 种类，如 LPC.16.0、LPC.18.3、LPC.18.1 和 LPC.20.3 与青少年肥胖的基线和随访 BMI 显着相关 (p < 0.05)。即使在调整了潜在的混杂因素后，LPC 物种与 BMI 的关联仍然显着。此外，使用层次聚类应用元分型可以深入了解正常组和肥胖组内的代谢异质性，从而区分代谢健康的个体和代谢状况不健康的个体。研究发现，儿童肥胖症患者的特定 LPC 水平发生改变和增加，尤其是在随访期间。这些发现表明，LPC 物种有望作为青少年肥胖的潜在生物标志物，包括健康和不健康的代谢特征。