Within-subject variation of plasma resistin levels over a 1-year period.
BACKGROUND
Resistin, a recently discovered hormone, is purportedly involved in metabolic and inflammatory processes in humans and may thus be an important marker to assess disease risk in large-scale epidemiological studies.


METHODS
We assessed the reliability of human resistin levels in 63 men and 51 women aged 35-67 years with repeated measurements of resistin over a period of 1 year. Student's paired t-test was used to compare resistin concentrations at baseline and 1 year later. Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) were calculated by analysis of variance.


RESULTS
There was no significant difference between resistin concentrations at baseline and after 1 year for both sexes combined or when analyzed separately for men and women. The ICCs were 0.70 (95% CI 0.59-0.78) for both sexes combined, 0.75 (95% CI 0.62-0.84) for men, and 0.66 (95% CI 0.47-0.79) for women. Resistin levels were not significantly related to age, body mass index, waist-to-hip ratio, sex, or fasting status.


CONCLUSIONS
Individual blood resistin concentrations did not significantly change over a period of 1 year, but showed a high degree of reliability. Our findings suggest that a single resistin measurement may be sufficient for risk assessment in epidemiological studies.
Weikert
Cornelia
C
German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbrücke, Nuthetal, Germany. weikert@mail.dife.de
Westphal
Sabine
S
Luley
Claus
C
Willich
Stefan N
SN
Boeing
Heiner
H
Pischon
Tobias
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood; D015992:Body Mass Index; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D052243:Resistin / Q000097:blood*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D049629:Waist-Hip Ratio
D015415:Biomarkers; C499624:RETN protein, human; D052243:Resistin