Abstract
Aim: Behçet’s disease (BD) is a chronic, inflammatory disease effecting
multiple organs. Vascular involvement is a major cause of morbidity and
mortality in BD patients. Though clinically well-defined, there is
limited information related to disease pathogenesis and vascular
incidences in this patient group. The aim of the current study is to
investigate the unique metabolic signatures of BD patients with vascular
involvement (VBD). Methods: Metabolomic profiling was performed on serum
samples of 48 BD patients (18 with vascular involvement) and 40 healthy
controls using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) 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
BD, vascular involvement in BD 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 BD.
Conclusion: In the present work, the untargeted metabolomics approach
provided new molecular insights for a better understanding of BD
pathogenesis and also developing vascular involvement in BD at the
metabolite level. The results showed that vascular involvement in BD
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 BD and also for
vascular involvement in BD.