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Updated: Jan 7, 2026
Dried Blood Spot Collection of Health Biomarkers to Maximize Participation in Population Studies
Published on: January 28, 2014
Biomarkers
Jun Sung Kim1, Dahyun Yi2, Min Soo Byun3
1Institute of Human Behavioral Medicine, Seoul National University Medical Reserach Center, Seoul, Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South).
Background:
Glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) is a major protein found in the astrocytic cells of the brain, and it is considered a marker of astrogliosis. This study aimed to examine whether blood GFAP levels moderate or mediate the relationships between in vivo Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathologies including beta-amyloid (Aβ), tau, and neurodegeneration.
Methods:
A total of 92 older individuals with diverse cognitive spectrum were recruited from the Korean Brain Aging Study for the Early Diagnosis and Prediction of Alzheimer's disease (KBASE). All participants underwent [11C] Pittsburgh compound B-PET, [18F] AV1451-PET, [18F] FDG-PET, and MRI. Plasma GFAP was measured using commercial Neurology 4-plex E kit. We analyzed mediation and moderation effects of GFAP on the relationships between Aβ), tau, and neurodegeneration using the PROCESS Macro models 4 and 1 in SPSS. All analyses were adjusted for the effects of age, sex and apolipoprotein ε4 allele positivity.
Results:
A total of 92 participants (38 cognitive normal, 29 mild cognitive impairment and 25 AD dementia) were included. Plasma GFAP levels were significantly associated with all AD biomarkers: brain Aβ and tau deposition, AD-signature cerebral glucose metabolism (AD-CM), and adjusted hippocampal volume (aHV). The mediation analyses revealed that GFAP mediated the relationship between Aβ and tau deposition, and between tau deposition and reduced AD-CM, but did not mediate the relationship between tau and aHV. Moderation analysis showed that GFAP moderated the relationship between Aβ and tau deposition.
Conclusions:
The findings support that astrogliosis, reflected by GFAP, mediates or moderates the key neuropathological processes related to AD.
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