Serum levels of phytoestrogens as biomarkers of intake in Mexican women

Abstract

Phytoestrogens have generated interest in human health in view of their potential effect to reduce the risk of developing chronic diseases. Serum levels of phytoestrogens have been proposed as an alternative to measure the exposure of phytoestrogens. We evaluated the use of serum as a biomarker of phytoestrogen’s intake in healthy women. Phytoestrogens in serum (luteolin, kaempferol, equol, biochanin A, formononetin, quercetin, naringenin, coumestrol, secoisolariciresinol, genistein, matairesinol, enterolactone, enterodiol, daidzein, glycitein and resveratrol) were analyzed by HPLC-ESI-MS. Subjects were asked to recall all foods and beverages consumed the previous 24 h. Association of dietary intake and serum concentrations was performed by Spearman correlation. Correlations were found for naringenin (r = 0.47, p < 0.001), luteolin (r = 0.4 p < 0.001), genistein (r = 0.32, p < 0.01) enterolactone (r = 0.35, p = 0.0553), coumestrol (r = 0.26, p = 0.0835) and resveratrol (r = 0.29, p = 0.0517). Serum levels as biomarkers of intake along with a 24-h recall would be useful in order to investigate the relationship between phytoestrogens and health.

• 24-h recall
• coumestrol
• flavonoids
• HPLC-ESI-MS
• lignans
• resveratrol

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the women for their time and contribution to the research, as well as Agilent Technologies for providing the mass spectrometer. The authors would specifically like to thank Diana Luna-Parra, Marcia Galvan-Portillo, Angel Ojeda-Contreras, Heber Castillo, and Gerardo Martinez for their research and technical assistance.

Declaration of interest

This research was supported by the National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) in Mexico and was conducted with register grant number #CB-2008-01-106028. The authors declare no conflict of interest.