Plasma Proteome Profiles Associated with Diet-Induced Metabolic Syndrome and the Early Onset of Metabolic Syndrome in a Pig Model

Obesity and related diabetes are important health threatening multifactorial metabolic diseases and it has been suggested that 25% of all diabetic patients are unaware of their patho-physiological condition. Biomarkers for monitoring and control are available, but early stage predictive biomarkers enabling prevention of these diseases are still lacking. We used the pig as a model to study metabolic disease because humans and pigs share a multitude of metabolic similarities. Diabetes was chemically induced and control and diabetic pigs were either fed a high unsaturated fat (Mediterranean) diet or a high saturated fat/cholesterol/sugar (cafeteria) diet. Physiological parameters related to fat metabolism and diabetes were measured. Diabetic pigs' plasma proteome profiles differed more between the two diets than control pigs plasma proteome profiles. The expression levels of several proteins correlated well with (patho)physiological parameters related to the fat metabolism (cholesterol, VLDL, LDL, NEFA) and diabetes (Glucose) and to the diet fed to the animals. Studying only the control pigs as a model for metabolic syndrome when fed the two diets showed correlations to the same parameters but now more focused on insulin, glucose and abdominal fat depot parameters. We conclude that proteomic profiles can be used as a biomarker to identify pigs with developing metabolic syndrome (prediabetes) and diabetes when fed a cafeteria diet. It could be developed into a potential biomarkers for the early recognition of metabolic diseases.