Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32257339›Full record

ArticleRoyal Society open science2020

Urinary suPAR: a non-invasive biomarker of infection and tissue inflammation for use in studies of large free-ranging mammals.

James P Higham, Christiane Stahl-Hennig, Michael Heistermann

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Royal Society open science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed
4.0field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 23 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Minimal Evidence of Inflammaging in Naturalistic Chimpanzee Populations.American journal of biological anthropology · 2026
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  2. Review
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  7. Minimally invasive biomarkers in human and non-human primate evolutionary biology: Tools for understanding variation and adaptation.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2022
    Article
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.

James P HighamDepartment of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, New York, NY 10003, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-1133-2030
Christiane Stahl-HennigUnit of Infection Models, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Kellnerweg 4, Göttingen 37077, Germany.
Michael HeistermannEndocrinology Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Kellnerweg 4, Göttingen 37077, Germany.
German Primate Center · DENew York University · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Studies of large free-ranging mammals incorporating physiological measurements typically require the collection of urine or faecal samples, due to ethical and practical concerns over trapping or darting animals. However, there is a dearth of validated biomarkers of immune activation and inflammation that can be measured non-invasively. We here evaluate the utility of urinary measurements of the soluble form of the urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (suPAR), for use as a health marker in studies of wild large mammals. We investigate how urinary suPAR concentrations change in response to viral infection and surgical trauma (inflammation), comparing it to the measurement of a marker of cellular immune activation, urinary neopterin (uNEO), in captive rhesus macaques. We then test the field utility of urinary suPAR, assessing the effects of soil and faecal contamination, sunlight, storage at different temperatures, freeze-thaw cycles, and lyophilization. We find that suPAR concentrations rise markedly in response to both infection and surgery-associated inflammation, unlike uNEO concentrations, which only rise in response to the former. Our field validation demonstrates that urinary suPAR is reasonably robust to many of the issues associated with field collection, sample processing, and storage, as long as samples can be stored in a freezer. Urinary suPAR is thus a promising biomarker applicable for monitoring various aspects of health in wild primates and potentially also other large mammals.

Indexed as

behaviourfield studiesinflammationnon-invasivephysiology

Identifiers

PMID32257339
PMCPMC7062102
OpenAlexW3006011391

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.