Identification of inflammatory and disease-associated plasma proteins that associate with intake of added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages and their role in type 2 diabetes risk

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

  • Ramne, Stina
  • Isabel Drake
  • Ulrika Ericson
  • Jan Nilsson
  • Marju Orho-Melander
  • Gunnar Engström
  • Emily Sonestedt

It has been suggested that high intake of added sugar and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) increase the level of circulating inflammatory proteins and that chronic inflammation plays a role in type 2 diabetes (T2D) development. We aim to examine how added sugar and SSB intake associate with 136 measured plasma proteins and C-reactive protein (CRP) in the Malmö Diet and Cancer-Cardiovascular Cohort (n = 4382), and examine if the identified added sugarand SSB-associated proteins associate with T2D incidence. A two-step iterative resampling approach was used to internally replicate proteins that associated with added sugar and SSB intake. Nine proteins were identified to associate with added sugar intake, of which only two associated with T2D incidence (p < 0.00045). Seven proteins were identified to associate with SSB intake, of which six associated strongly with T2D incidence (p < 6.9 × 10-8). No significant associations were observed between added sugar and SSB intake and CRP concentrations. In summary, our elucidation of the relationship between plasma proteome and added sugar and SSB intake, in relation to future T2D risk, demonstrated that SSB intake, rather than the total intake of added sugar, was related to a T2D-pathological proteomic signature. However, external replication is needed to verify the findings.

Original languageEnglish
Article number3129
JournalNutrients
Volume12
Issue number10
Pages (from-to)1-15
Number of pages15
ISSN2072-6643
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Funding: This research was funded by the Swedish Research Council (2016-01501), the Heart and Lung Foundation (2016-0267, 2019-0555) and the Albert Påhlsson Foundation. Further support was provided by the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (IRC15-006). The APC was funded by Lund University’s APC Fund.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

    Research areas

  • Added sugar, Inflammation, Inflammatory proteins, Proteomics, Sugar-sweetened beverages, Type 2 diabetes

ID: 288801268