Influence of sex, age, BMI, and smoking on 47 circulating inflammatory and vascular stress biomarkers in 9,876 healthy individuals

20 Jun 2023

This session was held on June 20 2023, during the 33rd Regional ISBT Congress that was held in Gothenburg, Sweden, from June 17-21.

The Blood services wider contribution to public health? session included the following presentations:

1. Mike Busch: mportant role for biorepositories in global surveillance and epidemiological studies
2. Khoa Manh Dinh: The effect of COVID-19 interventions on virus nasal carriage among Danish blood donors
3. Bertram Kjerulff: Influence of sex, age, BMI, and smoking on 47 circulating inflammatory and vascular stress biomarkers in 9,876 healthy individuals – Results from the Danish Blood Donor Study
4. Mars Stone: Development of a Nationwide Repeat Blood Donor Cohort to Monitor SARS-CoV-2 Serosurveillance and Population Immunity
5. Mart Janssen: Generating synthetic blood transfusion data for haemoglobin deferral prediction

MODERATORS: Antoine Lewin, Ole Birger Pedersen

After the presentation, there was a questions and answers session, which is also included in the recording.

Abstract

Influence of sex, age, BMI, and smoking on 47 circulating inflammatory and vascular stress biomarkers in 9876 healthy individuals: Results from the Danish blood donor study

B Kjerulff^1,2,3, J Dowsett⁴, R Jacobsen⁴, J Gladov^1,2, M Larsen⁴, A Lundgaard⁵, K Banasik⁵, D Westergaard⁵, S Mikkelsen¹, K Dinh¹, L Hindhede¹, M Schwinn⁴, A Juul⁶, B Poulsen⁴, B Lindegaard⁷, C Pedersen⁸, C Sabel^3,9, H Bundgaard¹⁰, H Nielsen¹¹, J Møller⁴, J Boldsen¹, K Burgdorf⁵, L Kessing¹², L Handgaard⁴, L Thørner⁴, M Didriksen⁴, M Nyegaard¹³, N Grarup⁵, N Ødum¹⁴, P Johansson⁴, P Jennum¹², R Frikke-Schmidt¹², S Berger¹⁵, S Brunak¹⁶, S Jacobsen¹², T Hansen⁵, T Lundquist⁴, T Hansen⁵, T Sørensen¹², T Sigsgaard⁹, K Nielsen¹⁷, M Bruun¹⁸, H Hjalgrim¹², H Ullum¹⁹, K Rostgaard²⁰, E Sørensen⁴, O Pedersen¹², S Ostrowski²¹, C Erikstrup¹

¹Clinical Immunology, Aarhus University Hospital, ²Clinical Medicin, ³Big Data Center for Environmental Research and Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, ⁴Clinical Immunology, Copenhagen University Hospital, ⁵Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, ⁶Department of Growth and Reproduction, ⁷Pulmonary and Infectious Diseases, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, ⁸National Centre for Register Based Research, Aarhus University, BSS, ⁹Public Health, Aarhus University, Aarhus, ¹⁰The Heart Center, ¹¹Obstetrics and Gyneacology, Copenhagen University Hospital, ¹²Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, ¹³Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Aalborg, ¹⁴LEO Foundation Skin Immunology Research Center, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, ¹⁵Centre for Diagnostics, DTU Health Technology, Lyngby, ¹⁶Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, ¹⁷Clinical Immunology, Aalborg University Hospital, Aalborg, ¹⁸Clinical Immunology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, ¹⁹Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark, ²⁰Epidemiology Research, Statens Serum Institute, ²¹Clinical Medicine, Copenhagen University Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

Background: Large-scale blood donor cohorts and biobanks can be used to inform public health. Here we used plasma samples randomly picked from the biobank of The Danish Blood Donor Study to measure 47 inflammatory and vascular stress biomarkers. Information on expectable concentrations is scarce for plasma biomarkers in healthy individuals stratified by sex, age, BMI and common lifestyle factors such as smoking, that is, phenotypes that are not exclusive to the criteria defining a healthy individual. The emerging use of biomarkers in research and tailored care introduces a need for information about the association between inflammation biomarkers, basic demographics and lifestyle factors.

Aims: We examined the association between biomarkers of inflammation and vascular stress and sex, age, Body Mass Index (BMI), current smoking, and time of day of the sampling to present the influence of these lifestyle and demographic factors and to present expectable concentrations in healthy individuals.

Methods: A selection of 47 predefined biomarkers were measured in plasma samples from 9876 participants in the Danish Blood Donor Study. The participants were selected to ensure an equal sex and age distribution between 18 and 69 years. The measured biomarkers included several interleukins, cytokines, chaemokines and markers of vascular stress. Using adjusted linear regression models, we examined the association between biomarkers and sex, age, Body Mass Index (BMI), current smoking, and time of day of the sampling. Additionally, patterns were assessed and compared between strata using heatmaps.

Results: We observed a general increase in concentrations of measured biomarkers of inflammation and vascular stress with higher age, BMI and smoking. For multiple biomarkers, the concentration associated with age, BMI, and smoking. Additionally, concentrations but also associations differed significantly between male and female participants. Most biomarkers displayed time-of-day variation. For age, sex, and BMI we provide detailed information on these associations and on the observed concentrations.

Summary/Conclusions: This study provides solid and comprehensive information on concentrations of 47 circulating inflammatory and vascular stress biomarkers in healthy individuals. The results demonstrate the influence of sex, age, BMI, smoking, and time of day. The study emphasizes that in-depth knowledge about biomarker concentrations in healthy individuals is critical for improved understanding of disease pathology and for developing precision diagnostics and tailored care and decision support tools based on biomarkers. Furthermore, the established dataset allows us to investigate a plethora of new research questions when linked to a rich database of phenotypes.