Comparative Metabolomic Profiles of Vascular Involvement in Disease

Background: Behcet's disease is a systemic, inflammatory disease affecting multiple organs. Vascular involvement is the main cause of morbidity and mortality in Behcet's disease patients. Though clinically well-defined, there is limited information related to disease pathogenesis and vascular incidence in this patient group. The aim of this study is to investigate the unique metabolic signatures of Behcet's disease patients with vascular involvement.Methods: Metabolomic profiling was performed on serum samples of 48 Behcet's disease patients (18 with vascular involvement) and 40 healthy controls using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry based untargeted metabolomics analysis. Multivariate and univariate statistical analyses were performed to find altered metabolites and pathways.Results: Untargeted metabolomics results showed that a total of 168 metabolites were identified. The comparison between the groups of Behcet's disease, vascular involvement in Behcet's disease, and the healthy control group showed that altered amino acid and oxidative stress pathways, especially with glutathione synthesis, could be an important stage for developing Behcet's disease.Conclusion: In the present work, the untargeted metabolomics approach provided new molecular insights for a better understanding of Behcet's disease pathogenesis and also developing vascular involvement in Behcet's disease at the metabolite level. The results showed that vascular involvement in Behcet's disease could be highly linked with amino acid metabolism and also the antioxidant system, and these disease-related pathways could be evaluated with further experiments for diagnosis and prognosis of Behcet's disease and also for vascular involvement in Behcet's disease.