Combination of asprosin and adiponectin as a novel marker for diagnosing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

BACKGROUND AND

OBJECTIVE

Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) have insulin resistance and are at an increased risk of diabetes. Recent evidence suggests that asprosin-a novel hormone secreted by white adipose tissue-may play a role in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance. However, the role of asprosin in NAFLD remains unclear. This study aimed to determine whether serum asprosin level could be used as a biochemical marker for NAFLD diagnosis.

METHODS

Forty-three untreated NAFLD patients and 50 sex- and age-matched healthy controls were included. Circulating serum asprosin and adiponectin (another adipokine) levels were detected by ELISA. Other metabolic parameters related to NAFLD were also determined.

RESULTS

Increased circulating serum asprosin and decreased serum adiponectin levels were found in NAFLD patients unlike in healthy controls. A positive correlation was observed between asprosin and platelet counts (PLT) (r = 0.3653, p = 0.015), fasting blood glucose (FBG) (r = 0.3592, p = 0.017), triglyceride (TG) levels (r = 0.3383, p = 0.025), serum albumin (ALB) levels (r = 0.3273, p = 0.030), and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (r = 0.4799, p = 0.001), whereas a negative correlation existed between adiponectin and TG levels in the NAFLD group. Multivariate linear regression showed that FBG and HOMA-IR were independently related to asprosin levels. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed that asprosinAUC and adiponectinAUC were 0.735 (95%CI 0.633-0.836, P < 0.0001) and 0.702 (95%CI 0.597-0.807, p = 0.0007) respectively. Moreover, the combination of both biomarkers showed good sensitivity and specificity with AUC of 0.827, which was better than the single detection of asprosin or adiponectin.

CONCLUSION

High serum asprosin and low adiponectin level might be associated with the presence of insulin resistance in NAFLD, and the combination of asprosin and adiponectin could be a novel biomarker for diagnosing NAFLD. These data needed to be confirmed and extended in further large-population, well-designed clinical studies.