The mediation effect of serum metabolites on the relationship between long-term smoking exposure and esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Background Long-term smoking exposure will increase the risk of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC), whereas the mechanism is still unclear. We conducted a cross-sectional study to explore whether serum metabolites mediate the occurrence of ESCC caused by cigarette smoking. Methods Serum metabolic profiles and lifestyle information of 464 participants were analyzed. Multiple logistic regression was used to estimate adjusted odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of smoking exposure to ESCC risk. High-dimensional mediation analysis and univariate mediation analysis were performed to screen potential intermediate metabolites of smoking exposure for ESCC. Results Ever smoking was associated with a 3.11-fold increase of ESCC risk (OR = 3.11, 95% CI 1.63–6.05), and for each cigarette-years increase in smoking index, ESCC risk increased by 56% (OR = 1.56, 95% CI 1.18–2.13). A total of 5 metabolites were screened as mediators by high-dimensional mediation analysis. In addition, glutamine, histidine, and cholic acid were further proved existing mediation effects according to univariate mediation analysis. And the proportions of mediation of histidine and glutamine were 40.47 and 30.00%, respectively. The mediation effect of cholic acid was 8.98% according to the analysis of smoking index. Conclusions Our findings suggest that cigarette smoking contributed to incident ESCC, which may be mediated by glutamine, histidine and cholic acid.