[Relationship between the severity of liver damage and the serum leptin level for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease].
OBJECTIVE
Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) represents a spectrum of conditions that are mainly characterized histologically by macrovesicular hepatic steatosis. There are two histologic patterns of NAFLD: simple steatosis alone and steatohepatitis. The factors leading from simple steatosis to nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) are still obscure. The datas from several studies have suggested that leptin could be involved in the progression from hepatic steatosis to steatohepatitis including the fibrosis. We evaluated serum leptin levels in patients with NAFLD to determine whether any relationships existed between the leptin levels and the severity of hepatic inflammation or fibrosis.


METHODS
We studied 62 patients with NAFLD who were diagnosed at the Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital from July 2001 to May 2004. We measured the serum leptin level in all cases and liver biopsy samples were obtained from 31 cases. The liver biopsy specimens were graded according to methods described by Brunt. Spearman rank correlations were used to detect the associations between the serum leptin and the various anthropometric and biochemical variables. The relationship between the histologic severity and the serum leptin level was evaluated with logistic regression analysis.


RESULTS
Serum leptin levels correlated with insulin, c-peptide, ALT and homeostasis model assessment insulin resistance, but not with BMI, age and gender. Serum leptin level also correlated with hepatic fibrosis, but not with hepatic steatosis or inflammation. However, the serum leptin level was not a significant independent predictor of the grade of hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis on the univariate analysis.


CONCLUSIONS
The serum leptin level was not an independent predictor of the severity of liver damage in NAFLD.
Kim
Kyoung Oh
KO
Department of Internal Medicine, Hallym University College of Medicine, Anyang-si, Korea. sanghoon@hallym.or.kr.
Park
Sang Hoon
SH
Park
Cheol Hee
CH
Han
Tai Ho
TH
Yoo
Kyo-Sang
KS
Kim
Jong Hyeok
JH
Lee
Myung Seok
MS
Kim
Dong Jun
DJ
Park
Choong Kee
CK
Cho
Hyun-Deuk
HD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D020738:Leptin / Q000097:blood*; D008099:Liver / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged
D020738:Leptin