title: Disease-specific miR-34a as diagnostic marker of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis in a Chinese population.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess disease-specific circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 111 biopsy-proven non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) or chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients and healthy controls from mainland China were enrolled to measure their serum levels of miR-122, -125b, -146b, -16, -21, -192, -27b and -34a. The correlations between serum miRNAs and histological features of NAFLD were determined. The diagnostic value of miRNA in NASH and significant fibrosis was analyzed and compared with that of cytokeratin-18 (CK-18), fibrosis-4 (FIB-4), and aspartate aminotransferase to platelet ratio index (APRI), respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Circulating miR-122, -16, -192 and -34a showed differential expression levels between NAFLD and CHB patients, and miR-34a had an approximately 2-fold increase in NAFLD samples compared with that of CHB samples (P< 0.01). Serum miR-122, -192 and -34a levels were correlated with steatosis (R = 0.302, 0.323 and 0.470, respectively,P< 0.05) and inflammatory activity (R = 0.445, 0.447 and 0.517, respectively,P< 0.01); only serum miR-16 levels were associated with fibrosis (R = 0.350,P< 0.05) in patients with NAFLD. The diagnostic value of miR-34a for NASH (area under the receiver operating characteristic, 0.811, 95%CI: 0.670-0.953) was superior to that of alanine aminotransferase, CK-18, FIB-4 and APRI in NAFLD, but miR-16 showed a limited performance in the diagnosis of significant fibrosis in NASH.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Circulating miR-34a may serve as a disease-specific noninvasive biomarker for the diagnosis of NASH.
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Lin
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Qin
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Rui-Nan
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Shi-Yan
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Chao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Zheng-Jie
authors.initials: ZJ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Yuan-Wen
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Xiao-Lin Liu, Qin Pan, Rui-Nan Zhang, Feng Shen, Shi-Yan Yan, Chao Sun, Zheng-Jie Xu, Yuan-Wen Chen, Jian-Gao Fan, Center for Fatty Liver, Department of Gastroenterology, Xin Hua Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai 200092, China.
authors.forename: Jian-Gao
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000410:Alanine Transaminase / Q000097:blood; D019540:Area Under Curve; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000097:blood; D001706:Biopsy; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D005819:Genetic Markers; D019694:Hepatitis B, Chronic / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D053538:Keratin-18 / Q000097:blood; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000097:blood / Q000235:genetics*; D008875:Middle Aged; D065626:Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology / Q000235:genetics*; D010976:Platelet Count; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012372:ROC Curve
chemical_list: D005819:Genetic Markers; C488421:KRT18 protein, human; D053538:Keratin-18; C522425:MIRN34 microRNA, human; D035683:MicroRNAs; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D000410:Alanine Transaminase
keywords: Biomarker; Chronic hepatitis B; Hepatic fibrosis; MicroRNA; Non-alcoholic steatohepatitis