Serum Metabolic Alterations in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Exploratory Targeted Metabolomics
8 affiliations
- 1Mass Spectrometry Laboratory, Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, 02-106 Warsaw, Poland
- 2Institute of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Siedlce, 08-110 Siedlce, Poland
- 3Department of Clinical Biochemistry, The Children’s Memorial Health Institute, 04-730 Warsaw, Poland
- 4Laboratory of Translational Cancer Genomics, Biomedical Center, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen, Charles University, Alej Svobody 1665/76, 32300 Pilsen, Czech Republic
- 5Laboratory of Genetics, University Center for Laboratory Medicine, University Clinical Center of the Medical University of Warsaw, 02-091 Warsaw, Poland
- 6Clinic of Endocrinology and Diabetology, The Children’s Memorial Health Institute, 04-730 Warsaw, Poland
- 7Department of Pathomorphology, The Children’s Memorial Health Institute, 04-730 Warsaw, Poland
- 8Warsaw Genomics S.A., 02-089 Warsaw, Poland
Abstract
Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an increasingly common chronic disease caused by autoimmune damage to pancreatic beta cells. Metabolomic profiling may provide insights into metabolic disturbances associated with T1DM and identify candidate biomarkers. Methods: The study included 29 children with T1DM and 11 controls. Targeted serum metabolomic profiling was performed using the AbsoluteIDQ® p180 kit based on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Differential metabolites were identified using statistical analysis with false discovery rate correction. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to evaluate the discriminatory performance of selected metabolites. Results: Significant metabolic alterations were observed in children with T1DM, particularly in glycerophospholipids, acylcarnitines, and selected amino acids. Among glycerophospholipids, 23 metabolites were significantly decreased, whereas one metabolite was increased in the T1DM group. Four acylcarnitines differed significantly between groups, with higher concentrations of octadecenoylcarnitine (C18:1), acetylcarnitine, and malonylcarnitine and/or hydroxybutyrylcarnitine [C3-DC (C4-OH)], and reduced free carnitine. In addition, three amino acids (alanine, arginine, and proline) were significantly decreased, while taurine was increased in T1DM patients. ROC analysis showed high apparent discriminatory performance for C18:1 (AUC = 0.925) and diacyl phosphatidylcholine (PC aa) C42:5 (AUC = 0.922) in this exploratory dataset. These AUC values were obtained from the same dataset used for metabolite discovery and therefore represent apparent in-sample discriminatory performance rather than an externally validated diagnostic performance. Correlation analysis showed that higher HbA1c levels were associated with lower concentrations of several amino acids and lipids; BMI z-score and disease duration were associated mainly with phosphatidylcholines and amino acids. However, none of these correlation-based associations remained significant after FDR correction and should therefore be considered hypothesis-generating. Exploratory multivariable analyses suggested associations of HbA1c, BMI z-score, and disease duration with selected metabolites; however, given the limited sample size and multiple model testing, these findings should be considered hypothesis-generating. Conclusions: Targeted metabolomic profiling revealed significant disturbances in lipid and amino acid metabolism in children with T1DM. In particular, increased C18:1 and decreased PC aa C42:5 may represent candidate metabolic features for distinguishing T1DM patients from non-diabetic individuals. Due to the exploratory study and limited sample size, our results should be interpreted with caution, and further studies in larger, independent cohorts are required to validate these findings.
Related
- Short-Term Stable Catchment-Level Metabolic Structure in Urban Wastewater Revealed by Untargeted Metabolomics
- Metabolomics in the Prediction and Early Diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus: Advances and Applications.
- Metabolic and Thyroid Alterations in HBV Monoinfection and HBV–HDV Coinfection: Insights from a Liver Transplant Cohort
- Gut microbial and metabolomic alterations associated with herpetic trigeminal neuralgia: an exploratory multi-omics study.
- Integrated Single-Cell Transcriptomics and Metabolomics Reveal Potential Associations Between Monascus pilosus Fermentation Metabolites and Diabetes-Related Pancreatic Transcriptional Networks
BibTeX
@article{samborowska2026serum,
title = {{Serum Metabolic Alterations in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Exploratory Targeted Metabolomics}},
author = {Emilia Samborowska and Marta Wysocka-Mincewicz and Agnieszka Ochocińska and Filip Ambrożkiewicz and Karolina Skubisz and Jakub Karczmarski and Mariusz Radkiewicz and Jolanta Świderska and Katarzyna Kowalcze and Damian Dyńka and Bożena Cukrowska and Agnieszka Paziewska},
journal = {Metabolites},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.3390/metabo16110844},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/16/11/844},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Serum Metabolic Alterations in Children with Type 1 Diabetes Mellitus: Exploratory Targeted Metabolomics
AU - Emilia Samborowska
AU - Marta Wysocka-Mincewicz
AU - Agnieszka Ochocińska
AU - Filip Ambrożkiewicz
AU - Karolina Skubisz
AU - Jakub Karczmarski
AU - Mariusz Radkiewicz
AU - Jolanta Świderska
AU - Katarzyna Kowalcze
AU - Damian Dyńka
AU - Bożena Cukrowska
AU - Agnieszka Paziewska
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/01
JO - Metabolites
DO - 10.3390/metabo16110844
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/16/11/844
AB - Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is an increasingly common chronic disease caused by autoimmune damage to pancreatic beta cells. Metabolomic profiling may provide insights into metabolic disturbances associated with T1DM and identify candidate biomarkers. Methods: The study included 29 children with T1DM and 11 controls. Targeted serum metabolomic profiling was performed using the AbsoluteIDQ® p180 kit based on liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry. Differential metabolites were identified using statistical analysis with false discovery rate correction. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis was applied to evaluate the discriminatory performance of selected metabolites. Results: Significant metabolic alterations were observed in children with T1DM, particularly in glycerophospholipids, acylcarnitines, and selected amino acids. Among glycerophospholipids, 23 metabolites were significantly decreased, whereas one metabolite was increased in the T1DM group. Four acylcarnitines differed significantly between groups, with higher concentrations of octadecenoylcarnitine (C18:1), acetylcarnitine, and malonylcarnitine and/or hydroxybutyrylcarnitine [C3-DC (C4-OH)], and reduced free carnitine. In addition, three amino acids (alanine, arginine, and proline) were significantly decreased, while taurine was increased in T1DM patients. ROC analysis showed high apparent discriminatory performance for C18:1 (AUC = 0.925) and diacyl phosphatidylcholine (PC aa) C42:5 (AUC = 0.922) in this exploratory dataset. These AUC values were obtained from the same dataset used for metabolite discovery and therefore represent apparent in-sample discriminatory performance rather than an externally validated diagnostic performance. Correlation analysis showed that higher HbA1c levels were associated with lower concentrations of several amino acids and lipids; BMI z-score and disease duration were associated mainly with phosphatidylcholines and amino acids. However, none of these correlation-based associations remained significant after FDR correction and should therefore be considered hypothesis-generating. Exploratory multivariable analyses suggested associations of HbA1c, BMI z-score, and disease duration with selected metabolites; however, given the limited sample size and multiple model testing, these findings should be considered hypothesis-generating. Conclusions: Targeted metabolomic profiling revealed significant disturbances in lipid and amino acid metabolism in children with T1DM. In particular, increased C18:1 and decreased PC aa C42:5 may represent candidate metabolic features for distinguishing T1DM patients from non-diabetic individuals. Due to the exploratory study and limited sample size, our results should be interpreted with caution, and further studies in larger, independent cohorts are required to validate these findings.
SN - 2218-1989
ER -