Altered Plasma Fatty Acid Abundance Is Associated with Cachexia in Treatment-Naïve Pancreatic Cancer

Kristyn Gumpper-Fedus, Phil A. Hart, Martha A. Belury, Olivia Crowe, Rachel M. Cole, Valentina Pita Grisanti, Niharika Badi, Sophia Liva, Alice Hinton, Christopher Coss, Mitchell L. Ramsey, Anne Noonan, Darwin L. Conwell, Zobeida Cruz-Monserrate

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Cachexia occurs in up to 80% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients and is characterized by unintentional weight loss and tissue wasting. To understand the metabolic changes that occur in PDAC-associated cachexia, we compared the abundance of plasma fatty acids (FAs), measured by gas chromatography, of subjects with treatment-naïve metastatic PDAC with or without cachexia, defined as a loss of >2% weight and evidence of sarcopenia (n = 43). The abundance of saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated FAs was not different between subjects with cachexia and those without. Oleic acid was significantly higher in subjects with cachexia (p = 0.0007) and diabetes (p = 0.015). Lauric (r = 0.592, p = 0.0096) and eicosapentaenoic (r = 0.564, p = 0.015) acids were positively correlated with age in cachexia patients. Subjects with diabetes (p = 0.021) or both diabetes and cachexia (p = 0.092) had low palmitic:oleic acid ratios. Linoleic acid was lower in subjects with diabetes (p = 0.018) and correlated with hemoglobin (r = 0.519, p = 0.033) and albumin (r = 0.577, p = 0.015) in subjects with cachexia. Oleic or linoleic acid may be useful treatment targets or biomarkers of cachexia in patients with metastatic PDAC, particularly those with diabetes.

Original languageEnglish
Article number910
JournalCells
Volume11
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authorsLicensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Keywords

  • Albumin
  • Diabetes
  • Fatty acids
  • Hemoglobin
  • Linoleic acid
  • Oleic acid
  • Pancreatic cancer
  • Sarcopenia

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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