DietSee: An on-hand, portable, strip-type biosensor for lipolysis monitoring via real-time amperometric determination of glycerol in blood

Abstract

Glycerol is a clinical biomarker of lipolysis that is mainly produced by adipose tissues. Blood glycerol content increases in pathological conditions such as metabolic and cardiovascular diseases or cancer cachexia, but also in response to energetic stress such as physical exercise. Accurate glycerol monitoring is therefore important in a range of healthcare contexts. However, current methods available for the quantification of glycerol are expensive, time-consuming, and require the extraction of plasma from blood, from which blood glycerol content is then extrapolated. Here, we report the development of a new point-of-care glycerometer device, DietSee, based on a strip-type biosensor that enables the quantification of glycerol directly from whole blood in 6 s. The performance of the biosensor was first evaluated using buffer solutions and spiked human and mouse plasma samples, and its response was compared with that of the gold-standard colorimetric method. The results obtained using DietSee correlated strongly with those from the reference method and demonstrated a linear response to glycerol levels across a wide range of concentrations (40-750 μM) that were representative of those in the human body. Next, the biosensor was validated using spiked human blood samples over a range of 30-55% hematocrit; it also demonstrated a strong correlation with reference measurements under these conditions (R² = 0.97). In addition, the biosensor was only minimally affected by a variety of potential interferents (endogenous and exogenous) and was highly stable in storage (more than 2 years when strips were stored dry at 4 °C). Finally, we investigated the application of the biosensor to real-time monitoring of lipolysis and found that the DietSee is well adapted for this purpose in both human and mouse samples. To conclude, the novel DietSee glycerometer is a sensitive, selective, and rapid tool that enables characterization of the metabolic status of an individual by measuring the glycerol concentration from a single fingertip blood drop.

Keywords: Biosensor; Fat loss management; Glycerol; Glycerometer; Lipolysis; On-hand portable instrument; Point-of-care testing (POCT).