Poor agreement between commercial ELISAs for plasma fetuin-A: An effect of protein glycosylation?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Fetuin-A is a circulating inhibitor of ectopic calcification. Low plasma levels have been associated in some studies with increased vascular calcification, aortic stiffness and mortality in patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD). However, there are other studies examining the association of fetuin-A with vascular parameters and mortality, which do not show these associations. These conflicting data may be explained by methodological differences. METHODS: We compared plasma fetuin-A measurements made with two widely-used commercial fetuin-A ELISA kits (Biovendor, Modrice, Czech Republic; Epitope Diagnostics Inc., San Diego, US) in samples from patients with and without CKD. We..