Within-Individual Stability of Obesity-Related Biomarkers among Women

doi:10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-06-1089

Within-Individual Stability of Obesity-Related Biomarkers among Women

Departments of ¹Epidemiology and Population Health, ²Touchstone Diabetes Center, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas; and ³Department of Medicine, Laboratory for Clinical Biochemistry Research, University of Vermont, Colchester, Vermont

Requests for reprints:
Robert C. Kaplan, Department of Epidemiology and Population Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Morris Park Avenue, Belfer 1306C, Bronx, NY 10461. Phone: 718-430-4076; Fax: 718-430-3588. E-mail: rkaplan{at}aecom.yu.edu

Abstract

Objective: Novel biomarkers including proinflammatory cytokines and adipokines are being explored as potential mediators of cancer and other obesity-related conditions. Prospective studies linking biomarker levels with disease outcomes often measure biomarkers at a single time point and assume that the within-individual variation in levels is small compared with the interindividual variation. However, this assumption is seldom tested.

Methods: This study examined the within-individual stability over time of plasma adiponectin, resistin, leptin, plasma activator inhibitor type 1, hepatocyte growth factor, tumor necrosis factor α, interleukin 6, and insulin among healthy young women.

Results: The study included 17 women (9 Black non-Hispanic, 2 Black Hispanic, 2 White Hispanic, and 4 other race/ethnicity) with mean age of 32.3 years, mean body mass index of 31.2 kg/m², and 76% prevalence of smoking. Analysis of intraclass correlation (ICC) suggested high to moderate correlation over repeated samples taken over 3 years in levels of resistin (ICC = 0.95), hepatocyte growth factor (0.91), plasma activator inhibitor type 1 (0.84), adiponectin (0.73), insulin (0.62), and leptin (0.58). ICCs were weaker for levels of proinflammatory cytokines, tumor necrosis factor α (0.39), and interleukin 6 (0.47).

Conclusion: In this population of minority young females with a high prevalence of overweight and smoking, several obesity-related endocrine markers were stable over a period of 3 years. This supports the feasibility of longitudinal studies relating these biomarkers to the future occurrence of cancer and other health consequences of obesity. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2007;16(6):1291–3)

Footnotes

↵4 http://www.luminexcorp.com/01_xMAPTechnology/
↵5 http://www.med.uvm.edu/lcbr/
Grant support: The WIHS is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with supplemental funding from the National Cancer Institute, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and National Institute of Dental Research grants U01-AI-35004, U01-AI-31834, U01-AI-34994, U01-AI-34989, U01-HD-32632, U01-AI-34993, U01-AI-42590, N01-AI-35161, MO1-RR-00079, and MO1-RR-00083. This work was also supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant 1R01HL083760-01 (R.C. Kaplan).
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked advertisement in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
- Accepted March 15, 2007.
- Received December 24, 2006.
- Revision received March 2, 2007.