Metabolomics-based analysis of plasma in postmenopausal women with normal bone mineral density, postmenopausal osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis osteoporosis

This study aimed to examine metabolites in the plasma derived from postmenopausal women by untargeted metabolomics along with possible diagnostic markers for osteoporosis. From March 2020 through June 2020, 30 postmenopausal women with normal bone mineral density (BMD) were recruited in the N group, 30 postmenopausal women with postmenopausal osteoporosis were recruited in the postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) group, and 30 postmenopausal women with rheumatoid arthritis osteoporosis were recruited in the rheumatoid arthritis osteoporosis (RAOP) group. The height, weight, body mass index (BMI), total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), lumbar BMD, hip BMD, femoral neck BMD, and plasma metabolite levels were measured. Seven differential metabolites were observed between the PMO and N groups and recorded as metabolite set 1, and 38 differential metabolites were found between the RAOP and N groups and recorded as metabolite set 2. Six same metabolites were found between these two metabolite sets. The area under the curve (AUC) of the combined receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the six metabolites was 0.900. In this study, six metabolites with a diagnostic value for osteoporosis were found in the plasma of postmenopausal women, and the combined diagnosis efficiency of these six metabolites was high.