Minireviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Meta-Anal. Apr 28, 2021; 9(2): 153-163
Published online Apr 28, 2021. doi: 10.13105/wjma.v9.i2.153
Metabolic and biological changes in children with obesity and diabetes
Shirou Matsumoto, Tomomi Nakamura, Fusa Nagamatsu, Jun Kido, Rieko Sakamoto, Kimotoshi Nakamura
Shirou Matsumoto, Fusa Nagamatsu, Jun Kido, Kimotoshi Nakamura, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan
Tomomi Nakamura, Rieko Sakamoto, Department of Perinatal Care Unit, Kumamoto University Hospital, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan
Author contributions: Matsumoto S and Nakamura T contributed equally to this work; Matsumoto S, Nakamura T, Nagamatsu F, Kido J, Sakamoto R and Nakamura K designed the research study; Matsumoto S, Nakamura T and Nagamatsu F performed the searching of the literature independently; Matsumoto S and Nagamatsu F wrote the manuscript; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, No. JP15K09625 (in part); and The International Council on Amino Acid Science Japan Research Funding, No. ICAASJ001.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Shirou Matsumoto, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medical Sciences, Kumamoto University, 1-1-1 Honjo, Chu-o-ku, Kumamoto 860-8556, Japan. s-pediat@gpo.kumamoto-u.ac.jp
Received: January 27, 2021
Peer-review started: January 27, 2021
First decision: February 25, 2021
Revised: March 23, 2021
Accepted: April 23, 2021
Article in press: April 23, 2021
Published online: April 28, 2021
Processing time: 90 Days and 21.5 Hours
Abstract

The World Health Organization has stated that obesity in childhood is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century. Overweightness and obesity in early childhood lead to a higher risk of overweightness and obesity in adulthood, thus conferring an increased risk of chronic inflammatory conditions, including type 2 diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and some cancers. Therefore, metabolome analysis, targeted at screening and intervening in childhood obesity, is very important. Recent studies have indicated that amino acid and lipid metabolism could influence metabolic pathways in children with obesity. For this review, we searched clinical data addressing metabolomic profiles and insulin resistance (IR) in children with obesity from inception to February 2021 in Medline, Web of Science, and Scopus. According to our search, branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs), aromatic amino acids, and acylcarnitines have reportedly been associated with IR as biomarkers for diabetes in children. BCAAs, tyrosine, and phenylalanine could be predictors of the future development of diabetes in nondiabetic subjects. In addition, it is well known that insulin regulates BCAA metabolism, and BCAA is a biomarker for IR. To interpret the mechanism behind metabolic changes in obesity, it is very important to understand the pathways and combinations related with amino acid, lipid and glucose metabolism. In this review, we summarize studies on metabolic changes to understand metabolomics in children with obesity.

Keywords: Children with obesity; Diabetes mellitus; Insulin resistance; Amino acids; Acylcarnitine; Metabolomics

Core Tip: Metabolome analysis is an important tool for understanding and predicting future risks of diabetes mellitus. There is some reliable literature on adults; however, that concerning children is limited due to a lack of understanding regarding metabolism in growing children. Here, we explain and discuss the biological/metabolic features in growing children and overgrown children, due to an enhanced understanding of the results of metabolome analysis.