The Potential Role of Serum IGF-1 and Leptin as Biomarkers: Towards Screening for and Diagnosing Postmenopausal Osteoporosis

Purpose: To investigate the differences of several serum markers among population with different bone mass and to explore the utility of new potential biomarker for the diagnosing and screening for postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP). Materials and Methods: A total of 1055 postmenopausal women were screened and gathered data on BMD screening, biological samples, and questionnaire information. A liquid chip assay was used to measure serum IL-6, IGF-1, BMP-2, VEGF, leptin and FGF23. The predictive value of the indicator panels was assessed using the area under the receiver-operator characteristic curve (AUC). Statistical analyses were conducted by using SAS 9.4 and R software 4.1.1. Figures were created in GraphPad Prism 8.0. Results: When compared against the normal group, in addition to the vitamin D, the PMOP group showed a significant increase in median values for other indicators (P < 0.05), especially in P1NP and beta-CTX. Among the six cytokines representing different osteoporosis mechanisms, currently, we found that only IGF-1 and leptin showed significant differences between the groups. Also, the liquid chip assay results showed that IGF-1 and leptin, as newer cytokines in osteoporosis, not only have significant differences between groups, but also have a strong correlation with each other (P < 0.05). Then, we reported the accuracy of different indicator combinations by using AUC and, moreover, we demonstrated that IGF-1 with leptin did significantly provide incremental value to the AUC of conventional indexes, it markedly improved diagnostic efficacy, displaying an IDI of 9.45% (P = 0.000). Conclusion: IFG-1 and leptin seem to be key biomarker associated with PMOP. The high prevalence of PMOP makes these cytokines might bear the potential of becoming a very useful screening test also for clinical follow-up of patients.

Automated summary

This study investigated the differences of several serum markers among populations with different bone mass and found that IGF-1 and leptin may be key biomarkers associated with postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMOP). The findings suggest that these cytokines have the potential to be useful screening tests for PMOP diagnosis and clinical follow-up.