Three-year variability in plasma concentrations of the soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE).
OBJECTIVE
The soluble receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) has been implicated in the development of diabetes-related vascular complications, but the variability of concentrations of sRAGE in the blood is unknown. The objective of this study was to characterize within-person three-year variability of plasma levels of sRAGE.


METHODS
We measured sRAGE in plasma samples from 179 men and women in the community-based Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study at two time points, three years apart. We calculated correlation coefficients and the within-person coefficient of variation (CVw) to characterize variability in sRAGE. We compared these estimates to total cholesterol and white blood cell count (WBC) in the same participants.


RESULTS
Mean sRAGE concentrations at the two time points (mean time between measurements = 2.9 years) were 1096.2 pg/mL and 990.2 pg/mL, respectively (mean difference = -106.0 pg/mL, p-value < 0.001). The Pearson's correlation was 0.78 (Spearman's, 0.73). The intra-class correlation coefficient was 0.76 and the CVw was 26.6%. Compared to sRAGE, Pearson's and Spearman's correlations for total cholesterol (0.76 and 0.77) and white blood cell count (0.61 and 0.72) were similar, although CVw for both was lower (8.7% for cholesterol, 15.6% for WBC). Less than 4% of participants' values changed substantially (50% or greater) over the three-year interval.


CONCLUSIONS
We observed that sRAGE concentrations remained relatively stable over three years. Our findings suggest that a single measure of circulating sRAGE tracks well in a community-based population and could be a useful measure in clinical and epidemiologic studies of long-term risk.
Division of Epidemiology, The Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, OH, USA. Electronic address: jbower@jhsph.edu.
Julie K
JK
Bower
Division of Epidemiology and Community Health, University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
James S
JS
Pankow
Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Mariana
M
Lazo
Drexel University School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Eric
E
Christenson
Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, and Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, TX, USA.
Ron C
RC
Hoogeveen
Department of Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, and Center for Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center, Houston, TX, USA.
Christie M
CM
Ballantyne
Department of Pathology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Marc K
MK
Halushka
Departments of Medicine and Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, Madison, WI, USA.
Brad C
BC
Astor
Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA; Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Elizabeth
E
Selvin
D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000067759:Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic / Q000097:blood*
D000067759:Receptor for Advanced Glycation End Products; D011971:Receptors, Immunologic
Advanced glycation end products; Biological markers; Reliability and validity