Sclerostin and chronic kidney disease: the assay impacts what we (thought to) know

Sclerostin, a 22-kDa protein secreted by osteocytes, acts as a potent inhibitor of osteoblast activity. In chronic kidney disease (CKD), sclerostin is a putative driver of the bone-vascular axis. However, large discrepancies between sclerostin assays have been described.

We compared four different assays [Biomedica (BM), TecoMedical (TE), R&D (RD) and MesoScaleDiscovery (MSD)] in an analytical study and addressed the question whether bioassay choice affects the correlation between circulating sclerostin and clinical and biochemical determinants. Circulating sclerostin levels were determined in 39 prevalent dialysis patients and 82 non-dialysis patients referred for glomerular filtration rate measurement.

In the 82 non-dialysis patients, we observed large differences in median (interquartile range) sclerostin concentrations (in pg/mL): BM, 984 [interquartile range (IQR) 648]; TE, 629 (IQR 237); RD, 154 (IQR 84) and MSD, 36 (IQR 19). The concordance correlation coefficient between assays was poor (0.1-0.44). The same discrepancies were observed in dialysis patients. A significant negative rank correlation was found between glomerular filtration rate and sclerostin measured by BM and TE but not by MSD and RD. Associations between sclerostin and age, gender, weight or parathormone were also different according to the assay considered.

Clinical inference relating sclerostin levels found in the general, CKD and dialysis populations is largely influenced by the assay used to measure this biomarker.