Intra-individual reproducibility of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 as promising new biomarkers of immunometabolism

Matthew Schenk; Robin Reichmann; Liselot Koelman; Andreas F H Pfeiffer; Natalia N Rudovich; Krasimira Aleksandrova

doi:10.1016/j.metop.2020.100034

Intra-individual reproducibility of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 as promising new biomarkers of immunometabolism

Metabol Open. 2020 Mar 18:6:100034. doi: 10.1016/j.metop.2020.100034. eCollection 2020 Jun.

Authors

Matthew Schenk¹, Robin Reichmann^{1

2}, Liselot Koelman^{1

2}, Andreas F H Pfeiffer^{3

4

5}, Natalia N Rudovich^{3

6}, Krasimira Aleksandrova^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Senior Scientist Group Nutrition, Immunity and Metabolism, Department of Nutrition and Gerontology, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal, Germany.
² University of Potsdam, Institute of Nutritional Science, Potsdam, Germany.
³ German Centre for Diabetes Research, Germany.
⁴ Research Group Clinical Nutrition, German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Nuthetal, Germany.
⁵ Department of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Nutrition, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Charité University Medicine, Berlin, Germany.
⁶ Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes, Department of Internal Medicine, Spital Bülach, Bülach, Switzerland.

Abstract

Background: Galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 have recently emerged as promising biomarkers implicated in immunometabolism. However, whether single blood measurements of these analytes could be suitable for large-scale human studies has not yet been evaluated.

Methods: The concentrations of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 were measured over a 4-month period in 207 healthy adults with median age of 56.7 years. Biomarker intra-individual reproducibility was assessed based on calculation of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and examining Bland-Altman plots.

Results: The overall ICCs were excellent for nesfatin-1 (ICC: 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.92), and good for galectin-1 and haptoglobin (ICCs: 0.70 (95% CI: 0.61, 0.77) and 0.67 (95% CI: 0.57, 0.74), respectively). Bland-Altman plots supported a high level of agreement between repeated biomarker measurements.

Conclusions: Assay measurements of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 showed good to excellent within-subject reproducibility over a 4-month period, indicating that they may serve as feasible and reliable biomarkers for assessing metabolic inflammation in population research.

Keywords: BMI, body mass index; ELISA– Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay. Hb, hemoglobin. hsCRP; EPIC, European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition; IQR, interquartile range; Intra-individual reproducibility; Repeated measurements; galectin-1; haptoglobin; high sensitivity C-reactive protein. ICC, intraclass correlation coefficient; nesfatin-1.