title: Serum protein N-glycans profiling for the discovery of potential biomarkers for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis.
abstract: The hepatic histology in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease can vary from isolated hepatic steatosis to steatohepatitis can progress to cirrhosis and liver-related death. The aim was to evaluate the use of blood serum N-glycan fingerprinting as a tool for differential diagnosis of nonalcoholic steatohepatitis from steatosis. A group of 47 patients with NAFLD was diagnosed by clinical laboratory analysis and ultrasonography, and was studied histologically using the Brunt's scoring system. The control group included 13 healthy individuals. N-glycan profiles of serum proteins were determined by DNA sequencer-based carbohydrate analytical profiling. We have found that the concentrations of two glycans (NGA2F and NA2) and their logarithm ratio of NGA2F versus NA2 (named GlycoNashTest) were associated with the degree of NASH-related fibrosis, but had no correlation with the grade of inflammation nor steatosis severity. When used to screen NAFLD patients, GlycoNashTest could identify advanced NASH-related fibrosis (F3-F4) with the diagnosis sensitivity of 89.5% and specificity of 71.4%. The serum N-glycan profile is a promising noninvasive method for detecting NASH or NASH-related fibrosis in NAFLD patients, which could be a valuable supplement to other markers currently used in diagnosis of NASH.
authors.affiliation: Department for Molecular Biomedical Research, VIB, Ghent, Belgium. chitty@dmbr.ugent.be
authors.forename: Cuiying
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Hemda
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Schmilovitz-Weiss
authors.forename: Xue-en
authors.initials: XE
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Orit
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Pappo
authors.forename: Marisa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Halpern
authors.forename: Jaqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Sulkes
authors.forename: Marius
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Braun
authors.forename: Maya
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.forename: Nir
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Barak
authors.forename: Ran
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tur-Kaspa
authors.forename: Valerie
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Vanhooren
authors.forename: Hans
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Van Vlierberghe
authors.forename: Claude
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Libert
authors.forename: Roland
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Contreras
authors.forename: Ziv
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ben-Ari
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers / Q000097:blood / Q000737:chemistry; D002236:Carbohydrate Conformation; D002240:Carbohydrate Sequence; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D005234:Fatty Liver / Q000097:blood* / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology; D006801:Humans; D007249:Inflammation / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000097:blood* / Q000737:chemistry*; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; D011134:Polysaccharides