AB0237 Patient Reported General Health Associated with Amino Acid Metabolism in Patients with Early Untreated Rheumatoid Arthritis

BackgroundAromatic and branched-chain amino acids and alanine have correlated positively, and valine, histidine and glutamine negatively with increasing levels of glucose. Those changes were at leat in part explained by insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is increased in inflammatory conditions like RA.ObjectivesTo investigate amino acid metabolism (isoleucine, tyrosine, alanine, phenylalanine, leucine, valine, histidine, glutamine) among patients with newly diagnosed rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a population based cohort.MethodsFor quantification of amino acids serum nuclear magnetic resonance platform operating at 500 MHz was used in native serum samples from patients with RA participating in Northern Savo 2010 Study. Correlations between age- and BMI-adjusted amino acid concentrations and patient reported general health (GH, VAS) were evaluated. The 95% confidence intervals for the correlations were obtained by bias-corrected bootstrapping (5,000 replications).ResultsSerum samples from 63 patients, 34 females and 29 males, with RA satisfying the ACR/Eular 2010 classification criteria were studied. The mean age (SD) of patients was 59.1 (12.0) years and the BMI (SD) 27.3 (5.4) kg/m2. 69.8% had anti-CCP antibodies. The mean DAS28 was 4.4 (1.3) and GH 52.7 (25.7). Correlations between age- and BMI-djusted amino acid concentrations and patient reported GH are shown in table.Amino acidCorrelation with GHpIsoleucine0.03 (−0.24 to 0.26)0.80Tyrosine−0.10 (−0.32 to 0.14)0.42Alanine−0.21 (−0.44 to 0.04)0.081Phenylalanine0.30 (0.13 to 0.47)0.011Leucine0.05 (−0.21 to 0.27)0.67Valine0.07 (−0.19 to 0.29)0.56Histidine−0.29 (−0.50 to −0.06)0.032Glutamine−0.27 (−0.52 to −0.04)0.041Phenylalanine, histidine and glutamine concentrations also correlated with CRP r=0.71, p