# Lipidomics Biomarkers Link Sleep Restriction to Adiposity Phenotype, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Risk

> **NIH NIH R01** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2021 · $850,665

## Abstract

Chronic sleep restriction and altered sleep patterns have emerged as a common and serious health
and safety issue, and there is growing evidence that disrupted sleep directly underlies and/or contributes to
metabolic abnormalities and diseases, including diabetes. Despite the obvious need, however, there are as
yet no objective means of assessing chronic sleep status and limited understanding of intermediate
phenotypes, especially in diverse populations. Not surprisingly, the first goal of the 2011 NIH Sleep Disorders
Research Plan is to identify: "...metabolic... biomarkers of sleep deficiency ... that will facilitate personalized
treatments, and clarify the risk associated with untreated sleep and circadian disorders and disturbances." It is
biologically plausible that the metabolic consequences of restricted/altered sleep are, at least at some level,
reflected in shifts within an individual's circulating lipids and overall adiposity status -- i.e., the clinical hallmarks
that associate with, precede, and predict, metabolic syndrome and overt diabetes. Conversely, healthy,
physically active adults display a fat distribution with a relatively low level of visceral and liver adiposity –
regardless of their overall adiposity. The heterogeneity in level and types of obesity that exists among the five
ethnic groups in the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) offers a unique research setting to better understand the ill
effects of abnormalities in sleep duration and patterns, how these changes relate to diabetes risk, and how this
relationship is modified by age and ethnicity. More specifically, we propose a general viewpoint -- and set of
hypotheses, in which: (i) Sleep restriction and/or altered sleep patterns directly induce altered circulating
lipids short-term and altered adiposity phenotypes (e.g., shifts in the ratios between visceral, liver, and
subcutaneous fat) long-term; (ii) the core risk of insufficient sleep or altered sleep patterns is ethnic and sex-
independent, but its penetrance on diabetes risk is influenced by the underlying risk within the different ethnic
groups; (iii) the consequences of sleep problems continue and increase risk of mortality in diabetics
specifically and, more generally, in the MEC. This proposal leverages data on ~1850 older individuals
(age~65-70) DEXA/MRI-assessed for body fat/distribution (e.g., visceral fat, liver fat, subcutaneous fat, etc)
and the availability of 2400 nested (in MEC), ethnically- and age-diverse (age~50 to 80) case-control pairs for
future diabetes, as well as existing clinical and sleep study data in Brigham and Women's Hospital.
Identification of biomarker panels for insufficient or abnormal sleep will impact multiple aspects of science and
health: (i) contribute to clinical recognition and treatment (e.g., counseling, pharmaceuticals) of sleep issues;
(ii) create epidemiologic tools to relate limited sleep with disease risk and aid development of other disease
biomarkers, and; (iii) contribute t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10212442
- **Project number:** 5R01HL140335-04
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** BRUCE S KRISTAL
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $850,665
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-09-01 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10212442

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10212442, Lipidomics Biomarkers Link Sleep Restriction to Adiposity Phenotype, Diabetes, and Cardiovascular Risk (5R01HL140335-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10212442. Licensed CC0.

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