Comparative analysis of obesity-related cardiometabolic and renal biomarkers in human plasma and serum

Meenu Rohini Rajan,Matus Sotak,Emma Börgeson,Tong Shen,Per Lindahl,Christina Biörserud,Rosie Perkins,Tomas L Lindahl,Kamil Borkowski,Nicholas J Ashton,Stephan Lange,Fredrik Barrenäs,Sofia Ramström,Oliver Fiehn,John W Newman,Michael Schöll,Ville Wallenius

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-51673-0

Abstract

The search for biomarkers associated with obesity-related diseases is ongoing, but it is not clear whether plasma and serum can be used interchangeably in this process. Here we used high-throughput screening to analyze 358 proteins and 76 lipids, selected because of their relevance to obesity-associated diseases, in plasma and serum from age- and sex-matched lean and obese humans. Most of the proteins/lipids had similar concentrations in plasma and serum, but a subset showed significant differences. Notably, a key marker of cardiovascular disease PAI-1 showed a difference in concentration between the obese and lean groups only in plasma. Furthermore, some biomarkers showed poor correlations between plasma and serum, including PCSK9, an important regulator of cholesterol homeostasis. Collectively, our results show that the choice of biofluid may impact study outcome when screening for obesity-related biomarkers and we identify several markers where this will be the case.

Highlights

Of clotting factors in serum than in plasma
The aim of our study was to determine whether the use of plasma or serum would yield different results when screening for obesity-related biomarkers
We analyzed proteins and lipids that have previously been suggested to play a role in obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases in plasma and serum from age- and sex-matched groups of lean and obese humans

Summary

Introduction

Of clotting factors (such as fibrinogen and coagulation cascade proteins) in serum than in plasma. Biomarkers are often reported to have better detectability in serum[8] despite the fact that serum has a slightly lower total protein concentration than plasma[9]. The aim of our study was to determine whether the use of plasma or serum would yield different results when screening for obesity-related biomarkers. We analyzed proteins and lipids that have previously been suggested to play a role in obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases in plasma and serum from age- and sex-matched groups of lean and obese humans. Our results show that the use of plasma or serum may have an effect on study outcome when screening for obesity-related biomarkers and we identify key markers that highlight this issue

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Conclusion