Intra-individual variation of plasma adipokine levels and utility of single measurement of these biomarkers in population-based studies

Adipokines, soluble mediators produced by adipocytes, may link adipose tissue to the inflammatory, metabolic, and immune dysregulation that characterize many obesity-related diseases. The stability of plasma adipokine levels within individuals, their seasonal variability, intercorrelations, and relationships to well-established measures of adiposity are incompletely defined. We measured levels of 12 adipokines [interleukin 1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), nerve growth factor (NGF), leptin, adiponectin, hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), and resistin] in four seasonal random plasma samples of 48 male participants of a population-based cohort study. The representativeness of single measurements was assessed by correlating the adipokine levels of a single, random sample with the mean levels from the remaining three samples using a bootstrap approach and using intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC). Spearman correlations between adipokine levels, age, body mass index (BMI), and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) were estimated. Correlations between plasma adipokine levels from one random sample and the mean of the remaining three seasonal samples ranged from 0.57 to 0.89. Over the 1-year study period, the ICCs for adipokine levels ranged from 0.44 (PAI-1) to 0.83 (HGF). IL-8, MCP-1, and resistin levels were positively associated with age; HGF and PAI-1 levels were correlated with BMI and WHR. This study suggests that adipokine levels in a single blood sample may be useful biomarkers of inflammation in population-based studies of obesity-related disease.