Evaluation of the Sphingolipidomic Profile in Women with Anorexia Nervosa: Relationships with Parameters Related to Body Composition, Cardiovascular Function, Glucometabolic Homeostasis, and Lipoprotein Metabolism

Background. Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a metabolic-psychiatric disease, in which, besides an extremely low body weight, there is a paradoxical dyslipidemia. Objectives. The aims of the present study were (1) to carry out a sphingolipidomic profiling in a group of women with AN (n = 28; body mass index [BMI]: 15.54 [13.96–16.32] kg/m2) compared to a normal-weight healthy (NWH) group (n = 30; BMI: 22.05 [19.67–23.72] kg/m2), and (2) to correlate plasma levels of single or total sphingolipids with parameters related to body composition, cardiovascular function, glucometabolic homeostasis, and lipoprotein metabolism. Results. Age, weight, BMI, fat mass (FM) (%), and fat-free mass (FFM) (kg) were significantly lower in women with AN than in the NWH group. Women with AN exhibited lower values of both systolic and diastolic blood pressure than the NWH group. Glucose, insulin, and HOMA-IR were significantly lower in women with AN than in the NWH group. Finally, C-reactive protein (CRP) was significantly higher in NWH women than in those with AN. Among all the sphingolipid species evaluated, 16 were significantly increased in AN (single species or whole family of summed species), while 6 were decreased. The highest significant correlations of sphingolipidomic profiling were mainly concentrated within parameters related to body composition. Conclusions. Women with AN have a specific sphingolipidomic profile that could hopefully serve as a marker for monitoring treatment effectiveness.