Intra-individual reproducibility of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 as promising new biomarkers of immunometabolism

BACKGROUND: Galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 have recently emerged as promising biomarkers implicated in immunometabolism. However, whether single blood measurements of these analytes could be suitable for large-scale human studies has not yet been evaluated. METHODS: The concentrations of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 were measured over a 4-month period in 207 healthy adults with median age of 56.7 years. Biomarker intra-individual reproducibility was assessed based on calculation of intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) and examining Bland-Altman plots. RESULTS: The overall ICCs were excellent for nesfatin-1 (ICC: 0.89 (95% CI: 0.86, 0.92), and good for galectin-1 and haptoglobin (ICCs: 0.70 (95% CI: 0.61, 0.77) and 0.67 (95% CI: 0.57, 0.74), respectively). Bland-Altman plots supported a high level of agreement between repeated biomarker measurements. CONCLUSIONS: Assay measurements of galectin-1, haptoglobin, and nesfatin-1 showed good to excellent within-subject reproducibility over a 4-month period, indicating that they may serve as feasible and reliable biomarkers for assessing metabolic inflammation in population research.