Lowered fasting chenodeoxycholic acid correlated with the decrease of fibroblast growth factor 19 in Chinese subjects with impaired fasting glucose

The gut-derived hormone Fibroblast growth factor 19 (FGF19) could regulate glucose metabolism and is induced by bile acids (BAs) through activating Farnesoid X Receptor (FXR). FGF19 was found to decrease in subjects with isolated-impaired fasting glucose (I-IFG) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). However, the reason for the change of FGF19 in subjects with different glucometabolic status remained unclear. Here we measured six BAs including chenodeoxycholic acid (CDCA), cholic acid, deoxycholic acid, their glycine conjugates and FGF19 levels during oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) in normal glucose tolerance (NGT), isolated-impaired glucose tolerance, I-IFG, combined glucose intolerance (CGI) and T2DM subjects. After OGTT, serum FGF19 peaked at 120 min in all subjects. Glycine conjugated BAs peaked at 30 min, while free BAs did not elevated significantly. Consistent with the decrease trend in FGF19 levels, fasting serum CDCA levels in subjects with I-IFG, CGI and T2DM were significantly lower than NGT subjects (P < 0.05). Fasting serum CDCA was independently associated with FGF19. CDCA strongly upregulated FGF19 mRNA levels in LS174T cells in a dose- and time-dependent manner. These results suggest that the decrease of FGF19 in subjects with I-IFG was at least partially due to their decrease of CDCA acting via FXR.