Habitual intake of advanced glycation endproducts is not associated with worse insulin sensitivity, worse beta cell function, or presence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes: The Maastricht Study

Background & aims: A diet high in advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) is a potential risk factor for insulin resistance, beta cell dysfunction, and ultimately type 2 diabetes. We investigated associations between habitual intake of dietary AGEs and glucose metabolism in a population-based setting.Methods: In 6275 participants of The Maastricht Study (mean & PLUSMN; SD age: 60 & PLUSMN; 9, 15.1% prediabetes and 23.2% type 2 diabetes), we estimated habitual intake of dietary AGEs N & epsilon;-(carboxymethyl)lysine (CML), N & epsilon;-(1-carboxyethyl)lysine (CEL), and Nd-(5-hydro-5-methyl-4-imidazolon-2-yl)-ornithine (MG-H1) by combining a validated food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) with our mass-spectrometry dietary AGE database. We determined insulin sensitivity (Matsuda-and HOMA-IR index), beta cell function (C-peptidogenic index, glucose sensitivity, potentiation factor, and rate sensitivity), glucose metabolism status, fasting glucose, HbA1c, post-OGTT glucose, and OGTT glucose incremental area under the curve. Cross-sectional associations between habitual AGE intake and these outcomes were investigated using a combination of multiple linear regression and multinomial logistic regression adjusting for several po-tential confounders (demographic, cardiovascular, and lifestyle factors). Results: Generally, higher habitual intake of AGEs was not associated with worse indices of glucose metabolism, nor with increased presence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. Higher dietary MG-H1 was associated with better beta cell glucose sensitivity.Conclusions: The present study does not support an association of dietary AGEs with impaired glucose metabolism. Whether higher intake of dietary AGEs translates to increased incidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes on the long term should be investigated in large prospective cohort studies.& COPY; 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).