# Metabolites of Dietary Intake and Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis

> **NIH NIH R01** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2021 · $662,673

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
 Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common form of arthritis and the major cause of activity limitation and
physical disability in older people. In the absence of disease modifying therapy, there is an urgent need for
effective, widely available approaches to aid in the prevention and management of this common condition.
Dietary factors associated with inflammation, obesity and other metabolic risk factors appear to play a role in
OA pathogenesis. However, few human studies have studied the association between dietary factors
and risk of future knee OA development. We have preliminary data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative (OAI), a
large cohort with repeated measures of OA symptoms and radiographic outcomes, demonstrating that the
Western dietary pattern, characterized by high intakes of red/ processed meats, refined grains, desserts /
sweets, was associated with increased risk of radiographic knee OA. In contrast, the Prudent dietary pattern
characterized by high intakes of fruits/ vegetables, legumes, whole grains, poultry, and fish was associated
with reduced risk of knee OA. Hence, adherence to a healthy diet may provide a potential strategy for the
prevention of knee OA. However, self-report dietary assessment methods, such as food-frequency
questionnaires (FFQs) and diet records, may be subject to recall bias and measurement error. Biomarkers of
dietary intake taking into account the nutrient bioavailability and metabolism may better represent a long-term
nutritional status. Recently, metabolomics, by measuring a large number of downstream components or
metabolic products (metabolites), provides the most integrated profile of biological status reflecting
environmental, dietary and genetic interactions, and therefore may more precisely define dietary exposures
and provide better estimates of disease risk in epidemiologic studies. To date, intervention studies have
identified a variety of metabolites related to the dietary intake of major foods. More than 50 of them have been
validated by multiple studies. To date, no study has ever assessed the association between metabolites
of dietary intake and future risk of knee OA. We propose a nested case-control study in OAI cohort
including 261 incident knee OA cases and 261 matched controls to examine whether individual metabolites
and metabolomic profiles of dietary intake predict subsequent risk of development of knee OA, and whether
diet-related metabolites and metabolomic profiles influence imaging biomarkers of knee OA. Finally, we will
examine whether imaging biomarkers of knee OA mediate the associations of diet-related metabolomic profiles
with risk of knee OA. This study will help to identify dietary factors associated with knee OA development, and
offer the potential for effective OA prevention strategies; therefore, it may have large public health and clinical
implications.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10180902
- **Project number:** 5R01AR074447-03
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Bing Lu
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $662,673
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-05 → 2021-12-06

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10180902

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10180902, Metabolites of Dietary Intake and Risk of Knee Osteoarthritis (5R01AR074447-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10180902. Licensed CC0.

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