Intrapersonal Stability of Plasma Metabolomic Profiles over 10 Years among Women

Oana A. Zeleznik; Clemens Wittenbecher; Amy Deik; Sarah Jeanfavre; Julian Avila-Pacheco; Bernard Rosner; Kathryn M. Rexrode; Clary B. Clish; Frank B. Hu; A. Heather Eliassen

doi:10.3390/metabo12050372

Metabolites (Apr 2022)

Intrapersonal Stability of Plasma Metabolomic Profiles over 10 Years among Women

Oana A. Zeleznik,
Clemens Wittenbecher,
Amy Deik,
Sarah Jeanfavre,
Julian Avila-Pacheco,
Bernard Rosner,
Kathryn M. Rexrode,
Clary B. Clish,
Frank B. Hu,
A. Heather Eliassen

Affiliations

Oana A. Zeleznik: Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Clemens Wittenbecher: Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Amy Deik: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Sarah Jeanfavre: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Julian Avila-Pacheco: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Bernard Rosner: Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Kathryn M. Rexrode: Division of Women’s Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA
Clary B. Clish: Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA
Frank B. Hu: Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA
A. Heather Eliassen: Channing Division of Network Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/metabo12050372
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 12, no. 5
p. 372

Abstract

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In epidemiological studies, samples are often collected long before disease onset or outcome assessment. Understanding the long-term stability of biomarkers measured in these samples is crucial. We estimated within-person stability over 10 years of metabolites and metabolite features (n = 5938) in the Nurses’ Health Study (NHS): the primary dataset included 1880 women with 1184 repeated samples donated 10 years apart while the secondary dataset included 1456 women with 488 repeated samples donated 10 years apart. We quantified plasma metabolomics using two liquid chromatography mass spectrometry platforms (lipids and polar metabolites) at the Broad Institute (Cambridge, MA, USA). Intra-class correlations (ICC) were used to estimate long-term (10 years) within-person stability of metabolites and were calculated as the proportion of the total variability (within-person + between-person) attributable to between-person variability. Within-person variability was estimated among participants who donated two blood samples approximately 10 years apart while between-person variability was estimated among all participants. In the primary dataset, the median ICC was 0.43 (1st quartile (Q1): 0.36; 3rd quartile (Q3): 0.50) among known metabolites and 0.41 (Q1: 0.34; Q3: 0.48) among unknown metabolite features. The three most stable metabolites were N6,N6-dimethyllysine (ICC = 0.82), dimethylguanidino valerate (ICC = 0.72), and N-acetylornithine (ICC = 0.72). The three least stable metabolites were palmitoylethanolamide (ICC = 0.05), ectoine (ICC = 0.09), and trimethylamine-N-oxide (ICC = 0.16). Results in the secondary dataset were similar (Spearman correlation = 0.87) to corresponding results in the primary dataset. Within-person stability over 10 years is reasonable for lipid, lipid-related, and polar metabolites, and varies by metabolite class. Additional studies are required to estimate within-person stability over 10 years of other metabolites groups.

Published in Metabolites

ISSN: 2218-1989 (Online)
Publisher: MDPI AG
Country of publisher: Switzerland
LCC subjects: Science: Microbiology
Website: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/metabolites

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