Reliability of fasting plasma alkylresorcinol metabolites concentrations measured 4 months apart

Alkylresorcinols (AR) have been suggested as specific dietary biomarkers of whole-grain wheat and rye intake. AR are metabolised to 3,5-dihydroxybenzoic acid (DHBA) and 3-(3,5-dihydroxyphenyl)-1-propanoic acid (DHPPA), which have longer apparent half-lives and were recently proposed to better reflect long-term whole-grain consumption than the intact AR. The objective of this study was to analyse the reliability--expressed by the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC)--of AR metabolite concentrations among 100 participants from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC)-Potsdam study who provided two fasting plasma samples 4 months apart. DHBA and DHPPA concentrations were not significantly different between the first and second measurement over the 4-month period (P>0.05). The ICC was 0.32 (95% confidence interval (CI)=0.13-0.49) for DHBA and 0.37 (95%CI=0.19-0.53) for DHPPA. These results suggest that AR metabolites cannot be considered to be better biomarkers of whole-grain wheat and rye intake than the intact AR in fasting plasma (ICC=0.42).