Cited by 135Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry StudiesClinical Laboratory Practices and Quality ControlHealth, Environment, Cognitive Aging

Reliability of serum metabolite concentrations over a 4-month period using a targeted metabolomic approach

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Floegel, Anna, Drogan, Dagmar, Wang-Sattler, Rui, Prehn, Cornelia, Illig, Thomas, Adamski, Jerzy, Joost, Hans-Georg, Boeing, Heiner +1 more·2011·PLoS ONE

Abstract

Metabolomics is a promising tool for discovery of novel biomarkers of chronic disease risk in prospective epidemiologic studies. We investigated the between- and within-person variation of the concentrations of 163 serum metabolites over a period of 4 months to evaluate the metabolite reliability expressed by the intraclass-correlation coefficient (ICC: the ratio of between-person variance and total variance). The analyses were performed with the BIOCRATES AbsoluteIDQ™ targeted metabolomics technology, including acylcarnitines, amino acids, glycerophospholipids, sphingolipids and hexose in 100 healthy individuals from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam study who had provided two fasting blood samples 4 months apart. Overall, serum reliability of metabolites over a 4-month period was good. The median ICC of the 163 metabolites was 0.57. The highest ICC was observed for hydroxysphingomyelin C14:1 (ICC = 0.85) and the lowest was found for acylcarnitine C3:1 (ICC = 0). Reliability was high for hexose (ICC = 0.76), sphingolipids (median ICC = 0.66; range: 0.24-0.85), amino acids (median ICC = 0.58; range: 0.41-0.72) and glycerophospholipids (median ICC = 0.58; range: 0.03-0.81). Among acylcarnitines, reliability of short and medium chain saturated compounds was good to excellent (ICC range: 0.50-0.81). Serum reliability was lower for most hydroxyacylcarnitines and monounsaturated acylcarnitines (ICC range: 0.11-0.45 and 0.00-0.63, respectively). For most of the metabolites a single measurement may be sufficient for risk assessment in epidemiologic studies with healthy subjects.

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Authors
Floegel, A., Drogan, D., Wang-Sattler, R., Prehn, C., Illig, T., Adamski, J., Joost, H.-G., Boeing, H., & Pischon, T.
Affiliations
  • German Institute of Human Nutrition (DE)
  • Helmholtz Munich (DE)
  • Max Delbrück Center (DE)
Corresponding author
Floegel, Anna
Venue
PLoS ONE
Published
2011-06-15
Volume
6
Issue
6
Pages
e21103
ISSN
1932-6203 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2042418561
Cited by
135
References
38
Citations by year
2026: 4 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 7 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 15 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 6 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 7
FWCI
3.63
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • PLoS ONE (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • MDC Repository (Max-Delbrueck-Center for Molecular Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
  • RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Site cant be reached (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung (01GI0922)
Topics
  • Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Metabolomics and Mass Spectrometry Studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Clinical Laboratory Practices and Quality Control
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Health, Toxicology and Mutagenesis › Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging
Keywords
serum metabolites, intraclass correlation coefficient, between-person variation, within-person variability, targeted metabolomics, acylcarnitines, sphingolipids, glycerophospholipids, amino acids, hexoses, biomarkers, chronic disease risk
MeSH terms
Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Reproducibility of Results, Serum, Metabolomics

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