Plasma Citrulline: A New Marker of Gut Epithelium Alteration in Obese Patients? - Journal of Diabetes Mellitus

JDM > Vol.5 No.4, November 2015

Plasma Citrulline: A New Marker of Gut Epithelium Alteration in Obese Patients? ()

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DOI: 10.4236/jdm.2015.54028 3,940 Downloads 4,737 Views Citations

Author(s)

Stefano Benedini^1,2*, Isabella Fermo³, Andrea Caumo¹, Ileana Terruzzi⁴, Livio Luzi^1,2

Affiliation(s)

¹Department of Biomedical Sciences and Health, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy.
²Metabolism Research Center, IRCCS Policlinico San Donato, Milan, Italy.
³Division of Immunology, Transplantation & Infectious disease San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.
⁴Diabetes Research Institute, Metabolism, Nutrigenomics and Cellular Differentiation Unit, San Raffaele Scientific Institute, Milan, Italy.

ABSTRACT

Objectives: In the last decade gut microbial diversity was associated with the pathogenesis of obesity in humans. Plasma citrulline was a simple and accurate biomarker for the severity of intestinal failure and was associated with short bowel syndrome and alteration of gut permeability, being developed as an alternative to D-xylose tolerance test for the diagnosis of an abnormal small intestinal absorption of nutrients. This study was performed to ascertain whether obesity might be associated with dysregulation of epithelial gut function. Methods: Fifteen obese individuals (5 M/10 F; BMI 37.4 ± 6.1 Kg/m²; 42 ± 6 yrs) and 15 healthy gender- and age-matched controls (6 M/9 F BMI: 22.7 ± 2.1 Kg/m²; 39 ± 7 yrs) underwent D-xylose load (25 g) and plasma citrulline, plasma insulin, glucose and lipid profile testing. Results: Plasma citrulline was significantly lower in the obese group (p = 0.045) with respect to controls, whilst total cholesterol, LDL and trygliceri- des concentration, insulin level and HOMA-IR were significantly higher in obese patients. In contrast, after D-xylose load no difference in serum xylose was found between the two groups (p = ns). Conclusions: Obese patients show a decreased citrulline concentration with respect to lean subjects. Since citrulline is a known marker of intestinal health, alterations in the gut epithelium are likely to be associated with the obesity syndrome. We propose to measure citrulline level in obese patients on a routine basis.

KEYWORDS

Citrulline, Obesity, HOMA-IR, Gut

Share and Cite:

Benedini, S. , Fermo, I. , Caumo, A. , Terruzzi, I. and Luzi, L. (2015) Plasma Citrulline: A New Marker of Gut Epithelium Alteration in Obese Patients?. Journal of Diabetes Mellitus, 5, 233-237. doi: 10.4236/jdm.2015.54028.

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