OBJECTIVE: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is associated with abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism. However, whether there is an independent association between Sleep Apnea-Specific Hypoxic Burden (SASHB) and glycolipid metabolism disorders in patients with OSA is unknown.
METHODS: We enrolled 2,173 participants with suspected OSA from January 2019 to July 2023 in this study. Polysomnographic variables, biochemical indicators, and physical measurements were collected from each participant. Multiple linear regression analyses were used to evaluate independent associations between SASHB, AHI, CT90 and glucose as well as lipid profile. Furthermore, logistic regressions were used to determine the odds ratios (ORs) for abnormal glucose and lipid metabolism across various SASHB, AHI, CT90 quartiles.
RESULTS: The SASHB was independently associated with fasting blood glucose (FBG) (β = 0.058, P = 0.016), fasting insulin (FIN) (β = 0.073, P < 0.001), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (β = 0.058, P = 0.011), total cholesterol (TC) (β = 0.100, P < 0.001), total triglycerides (TG) (β = 0.063, P = 0.011), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (β = 0.075, P = 0.003), apolipoprotein A-I (apoA-I) (β = 0.051, P = 0.049), apolipoprotein B (apoB) (β = 0.136, P < 0.001), apolipoprotein E (apoE) (β = 0.088, P < 0.001) after adjustments for confounding factors. Furthermore, the ORs for hyperinsulinemia across the higher SASHB quartiles were 1.527, 1.545, and 2.024 respectively, compared with the lowest quartile (P < 0.001 for a linear trend); the ORs for hyper-total cholesterolemia across the higher SASHB quartiles were 1.762, 1.998, and 2.708, compared with the lowest quartile (P < 0.001 for a linear trend) and the ORs for hyper-LDL cholesterolemia across the higher SASHB quartiles were 1.663, 1.695, and 2.316, compared with the lowest quartile (P < 0.001 for a linear trend). Notably, the ORs for hyper-triglyceridemia{1.471, 1.773, 2.099} and abnormal HOMA-IR{1.510, 1.492, 1.937} maintained a consistent trend across the SASHB quartiles.
CONCLUSIONS: We found SASHB was independently associated with hyperinsulinemia, abnormal HOMA-IR, hyper-total cholesterolemia, hyper-triglyceridemia and hyper-LDL cholesterolemia in Chinese Han population. Further prospective studies are needed to confirm that SASHB can be used as a predictor of abnormal glycolipid metabolism disorders in patients with OSA.
BACKGROUND: ChiCTR1900025714 { http://www.chictr.org.cn/ }; Prospectively registered on 6 September 2019; China.

Obesity represents a significant global public health concern. The excessive accumulation of abdominal adipose tissue is often implicated in the development of metabolic complications associated with obesity. Our study aimed to investigate the impact of particular deposits of abdominal adipose tissue on the occurrence of carbohydrate and lipid metabolism complications. We established cut-off points for visceral adipose tissue (VAT), subcutaneous adipose tissue (SAT), and the VAT/SAT ratio at which selected metabolic complications of obesity-related diseases (disorders of carbohydrate and/or lipid metabolism) occur. We conducted an observational study involving 91 subjects with first- and second-degree obesity, accounting for gender differences. Anthropometric measurements were taken, body composition analysis (BIA) was conducted, and biochemical determinations were made. Our findings suggest that commonly used parameters for assessing early metabolic risk, such as BMI or waist circumference, may overlook the significant factor of body fat distribution, as well as gender differences. Both visceral and subcutaneous adipose tissue were found to be important in estimating metabolic risk. We identified the cut-off points in women in terms of their elevated fasting glucose levels and the presence of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR: homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance) based on SAT, VAT, and the VAT/SAT ratio. In men, cut-off points were determined for the presence of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) based on VAT and the VAT/SAT ratio. However, the results regarding lipid disorders were inconclusive, necessitating further investigation of a larger population.

Research has shown that the disordered serum lipid profile may be associated with the risk of differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC). Whether this association reflect causal effect is still unclear. The aim of this study was to evaluate the causality of circulating lipoprotein lipids on DTC.
Mendelian randomization (MR) analysis was conducted to evaluate the relationship between the circulating lipoprotein lipids and DTC risk using single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from a genome-wide association (GWA) study containing a high-incidence Italian population of 690 cases samples with DTC and 497 controls.
Univariate and multivariate mendelian randomization analysis demonstrated that \'total cholesterol\', \'HDL cholesterol\', \'apolipoprotein B\' and \'ratio of apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A1\' were correlated with DTC. According to sensitivity analysis, our results were reliable. Furthermore, multivariate analysis revealed that there is no causative association between DTC and any of the many cause factors when they interact with one another, suggesting that there was a deep interaction between the four factors, which could affect each other. Finally, the mechanism of the related effects each other as well as the target genes with significant SNP regulatory effects in DTC was explored by conducting functional enrichment analysis and constructing the regulatory networks.
We obtained four exposure factors (total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein B and ratio of apolipoprotein B to apolipoprotein A1) closely related to DTC, which laid a theoretical foundation for the treatment of DTC.

Dyslipidemias are a risk factor for cardiovascular diseases, especially at a young age. It is known from modern sources that shortchain fatty acids (SCFA) synthesized in the intestine are actively involved in the genesis of dyslipidemia, the spectrum and ratio of which depends on the consumed food substrates. In particular, it has been found that food components such as dietary fiber can affect the lowering of blood lipids by affecting the intestinal microbiota. Therefore, dietary correction can be an important step in the prevention and treatment of dyslipidemia, and as a result, help reduce the risk of developing cardiovascular disease (CD). The aim of the research was to study the content of the main SCFAs (acetate, propionate, butyrate) in the feces of people with dyslipidemia, including taking into account the actual nutrition and consumption of the carbohydrate fraction of the diet (starch, mono- and disaccharides, dietary fiber) as precursors of SCFAs. Material and methods. 70 patients aged 18 to 45 years with dyslipidemia were selected as stool donors. All subjects were divided into 2 groups: the main group with the risk of CD (the risk was determined by the risk scale for CD) and the comparison group with established cardiovascular pathology (CVP). SCFAs in stool samples collected after natural defecation and subjected to immediate freezing at -70 °C were determined by gas chromatography. The diet was analyzed by the 24-hour food recall method. Results. The frequency of occurrence of the optimal ratio acetate - acetic acid : propionate - propionic acid : butyrate - butyric acid (60:20:20) in all groups was no more than 25%. At the same time, in persons at risk of CD, in the SCFA pool there was a pronounced decrease in the proportion of butyrate, which is characterized by cardioprotective properties, up to 15% (with an optimal proportion of 20%) compared with the levels for healthy people noted in the works of M.D. Ardatskaya et al. and A.A. Kurmangulov. And in persons with CVP, the levels of fecal acetate, which is a regulator of metabolic processes, namely lipogenesis, differed insignificantly compared with the values obtained in the studies of the above authors. In all examined individuals, the content of acetate in feces depended on the carbohydrate component of the diet, primarily on the total amount of carbohydrates consumed. And increasing the amount of dietary fiber intake contributed to the elevation of this SCFA. In individuals at risk of CD a significant correlation was found between the content of acetate and the atherogenic index (r=0,695). And in persons with CVP, there was a high negative correlation between the level of acetate in the feces and the amount of mono- and disaccharides in the diet (r=-0,934). Conclusion. In individuals with dyslipidemia and CVD risk factors, the results obtained in this study confirm the need for targeted correction of diets in order to increase the proportion of food substrates, which are potential precursors of butyrate.

To evaluate the associations between hepatic, pancreatic steatosis, and lumbar spinal bone marrow fat determined by magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction in patients with no known or suspected liver disease.
A total of 200 patients who were referred to our radiology department for upper abdominal magnetic resonance imaging between November 2015 and November 2017 were included in this study. All patients underwent a magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction on a 1.5-T magnetic resonance imaging system.
The mean liver, pancreas, and lumbar magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction were 7.52 ± 4.82%, 5.25 ± 5.44%, and 46.85 ± 10.38% in the study population. There were significant correlations between liver and pancreas (rs = 0.180, P = .036), liver and lumbar (rs = 0.317, P < .001), and pancreas and lumbar magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction (rs = 0.215, P = .012) in female patients. A weak correlation was observed between liver and lumbar magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction (rs = 0.174, P = .014) in the total population. The prevalence of hepatic and pancreatic steatosis was 42.5% and 29%, respectively. The prevalence of pancreatic steatosis (42.9% vs. 22.8%, P = .004) was higher in male patients compared to female patients. In subgroup analysis, in patients with hepatic steatosis, there were higher pancreas magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction (6.07 ± 6.42% vs. 4.66 ± 4.53%, P = .036) and lumbar magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction (48.81 ± 10.01% vs. 45.40 ± 10.46%, P =.029) compared to patients without hepatic steatosis. In patients with pancreatic steatosis, there were higher liver (9.07 ± 6.08 vs. 6.87 ± 4.06, P = .009) and lumbar magnetic resonance imaging-proton density fat fraction (49.31 ± 9.13% vs.45.83 ± 10.76%, P = .032) in comparison with patients without pancreatic steatosis.
Based on the results of the present study, fat accumulation in liver, pancreas, and lumbar vertebra have associations with more evident in females.

To investigate the application value of 3T MRI qDixon-WIP technique in the quantitative measurement of pancreatic fat content in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).
The 3T MRI qDixon-WIP sequence was used to scan the livers and the pancreas of 47 T2DM patients (experimental group) and 48 healthy volunteers (control group). Pancreatic fat fraction (PFF), hepatic fat fraction (HFF), Body mass index (BMI) ratio of pancreatic volume to body surface area (PVI) were measured. Total cholesterol (TC), subcutaneous fat area (SA), triglyceride (TG), abdominal visceral fat area (VA), high density lipoprotein (HDL-c), fasting blood glucose (FPC) and low-density lipoprotein (LDL-c) were collected. The relationship between the experimental group and the control group and between PFF and other indicators was compared. The differences of PFF between the control group and different disease course subgroups were also explored.
There was no significant difference in BMI between the experimental group and the control group (P=0.231). PVI, SA, VA, PFF and HFF had statistical differences (P<0.05). In the experimental group, PFF was highly positively correlated with HFF (r=0.964, P<0.001), it was moderately positively correlated with TG and abdominal fat area (r=0.676, 0.591, P<0.001), and it was weakly positively correlated with subcutaneous fat area (r=0.321, P=0.033). And it had no correlation with FPC, PVI, HDL-c, TC and LDL-c (P>0.05). There were statistical differences in PFF between the control group and the patients with different course of T2DM (P<0.05). There was no significant difference in PFF between T2DM patients with a disease course ≤1 year and those with a disease course <5 years (P>0.05). There were significant differences in PFF between the groups with a disease course of 1-5 years and those with a disease course of more than 5 years (P<0.001).
PVI of T2DM patients is lower than normal, but SA, VA, PFF, HFF are higher than normal. The degree of pancreatic fat accumulation in T2DM patients with long disease course was higher than that in patients with short disease course. The qDixon-WIP sequence can provide an important reference for clinical quantitative evaluation of fat content in T2DM patients.

To investigate the relation of established glucose and lipid metabolism indexes and blood inflammatory biomarkers with severe periodontitis in systemically healthy patients.
Systemically healthy Stage III/IV periodontitis patients (case group) (n = 397), Stage II periodontitis patients (n = 36), and periodontally healthy subjects (control group) (n = 285) were recruited. A periodontal examination, complete blood cell examination, and blood biochemical examination were conducted for all participants. Full-mouth apical films were taken for the case group. Both the case and control groups were divided by age into younger (≤ 35 years) and elder subjects. Multiple logistic regression analysis and Pearson correlation analysis were conducted. A logistic least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) model was constructed for the younger subgroups.
Various glucose and lipid metabolism indexes and blood inflammatory biomarkers significantly differed between severe periodontitis patients and healthy controls, and the younger subgroups presented a greater degree of statistical differences than the elder ones. More pairs of periodontal parameters and blood indexes with significantly fair linear correlations were found in the younger patient subgroup. A logistic LASSO regression model containing eight blood indexes to assess a severe periodontitis outcome in younger subgroups showed satisfactory predictive ability.
The present study revealed various glucose and lipid metabolism indexes and blood inflammatory biomarkers significantly differ between severe periodontitis patients and healthy controls, especially in the younger subgroups. A LASSO regression model could be a viable option to assess severe periodontitis risk for younger patients.

OBJECTIVE: Metabolic disorders have been identified as major risk factors for severe acute courses of COVID-19. With decreasing numbers of infections in many countries, the long COVID syndrome (LCS) represents the next major challenge in pandemic management, warranting the precise definition of risk factors for LCS development.
METHODS: We identified 50,402 COVID-19 patients in the Disease Analyzer database (IQVIA) featuring data from 1056 general practices in Germany. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for the development of LCS.
RESULTS: Of the 50,402 COVID-19 patients included into this analysis, 1,708 (3.4%) were diagnosed with LCS. In a multivariate regression analysis, we identified lipid metabolism disorders (OR 1.46, 95% CI 1.28-1.65, p < 0.001) and obesity (OR 1.25, 95% CI 1.08-1.44, p = 0.003) as strong risk factors for the development of LCS. Besides these metabolic factors, patients\' age between 46 and 60 years (compared to age ≤ 30, (OR 1.81 95% CI 1.54-2.13, p < 0.001), female sex (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.20-1.47, p < 0.001) as well as pre-existing asthma (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.39-2.00, p < 0.001) and depression (OR 1.27, 95% CI 1.09-1.47, p = < 0.002) in women, and cancer (OR 1.4, 95% CI 1.09-1.95, p = < 0.012) in men were associated with an increased likelihood of developing LCS.
CONCLUSIONS: Lipid metabolism disorders and obesity represent age-independent risk factors for the development of LCS, suggesting that metabolic alterations determine the risk for unfavorable disease courses along all phases of COVID-19.

Recent studies have found that there are significant associations between body iron status and the development of diabetes. In the present study, we aimed to analyze the association among iron overload (IO), insulin resistance (IR), and diabetes in Chinese adults, and to explore the sex difference.
Men and women (age >19 years) who participated in the Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey and did not have diabetes at baseline were followed between 2009 and 2015 (n=5,779). Over a mean of 6 years, 75 participants were diagnosed with incident diabetes. Logistic regression was used to assess the risk factors associated with IO. Cox proportional hazard regression was used to estimate the risk of incident diabetes and to determine whether the risk differed among subgroups. Causal mediation analysis (CMA) was used to explore the mechanism linking IO and diabetes.
According to sex-stratified multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazards regression, IO increased the risk of incident diabetes. Women with IO had a higher risk of diabetes than men. Subgroup analysis with respect to age showed that the association between IO and diabetes was stronger in older women and younger men (P<0.001). CMA showed that liver injury (alanine transaminase) and lipid metabolism abnormalities (triglyceride, apolipoprotein B) contributed to the association between IO and diabetes.
IO is associated with diabetes and this association is sex-specific. IO may indirectly induce IR via liver injury and lipid metabolism abnormalities, resulting in diabetes.

Dioxins, environmentally stable and ubiquitous, have been found to induce metabolic changes especially in lipids and be related to multiple diseases. However, limited study is available on lipid alternations related to human exposure to dioxins. This study aims to explore the serum lipidomic characterization and to understand the underlying mechanisms of adverse health risks associated with dioxin exposure. A lipidomic study integrating nontargeted lipidomics, and targeted free fatty acid (FFA) and acyl-coenzyme A (acyl-CoA) analyses were conducted to investigate the 94 serum samples from two groups of male workers with remarkably different dioxin concentrations. The obtained results exhibited distinct lipidomic signatures between the high and low exposed groups. A total of 37 lipids were identified with the significant changes. The results revealed that dioxin exposure caused accumulations of triglyceride (TG), ceramide (Cer) and sphingoid (So), remodeling of glycerophospholipid (GP), imbalanced FFA metabolism, as well as upregulation of platelet-activating factor (PAF). These findings implied the associations between dioxin exposure and potential adverse health risks including inflammation, apoptosis, cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and liver diseases. This study is the first to explain the associations between dioxin exposure and health effects at the level of lipid metabolism.