Department of Clinical Laboratory, Affiliated Yancheng Hospital, School of Medicine, Southeast University, No. 75 Juchang Road, Tinghu, Yancheng, Jiangsu, 224001, People's Republic of China.
Lipids Health Dis. 2017 Sep 20;16(1):180. doi: 10.1186/s12944-017-0566-7.
Retinol binding protein 4 (RBP4) is implicated in obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus that are closely associated with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, recent investigations regarding circulating RBP4 levels in NAFLD are conflicting. This meta-analysis is to determine whether NAFLD, non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and simple steatosis (SS) patients have altered RBP4 levels.
We performed a systematic search in PubMed, EMBASE and The Cochrane Library up until 18 March 2017, and 12 studies comprising a total of 4247 participants (2271 NAFLD patients and 1976 controls) were included in the meta-analysis.
There were no significant differences of circulating RBP4 levels in the following comparisons: (1) NAFLD patients vs controls (standardized mean differences [SMD]: 0.08; 95% CI: -0.21, 0.38); (2) NASH patients vs controls (SMD: -0.49; 95% CI: -1.09, 0.12); (3) SS patients vs controls (SMD: -0.72; 95% CI: -1.64, 0.20) and (4) NASH vs SS patients (SMD: -0.04; 95% CI: -0.32, 0.24). The results remained essentially unchanged in the comparisons between NAFLD patients and controls after excluding single individual study or bariatric studies (n = 2). No significant publication bias was detected. However, there was significant heterogeneity among studies and the subgroup and meta-regression analyses did not find the potential sources.
Circulating RBP4 levels may not be associated with NAFLD. Further prospective cohort studies are required to confirm these findings.
视黄醇结合蛋白 4（RBP4）与肥胖、胰岛素抵抗和 2 型糖尿病密切相关，这些疾病都与非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）密切相关。然而，最近关于 NAFLD 患者循环 RBP4 水平的研究结果存在争议。本荟萃分析旨在确定非酒精性脂肪肝（NAFLD）、非酒精性脂肪性肝炎（NASH）和单纯性脂肪变性（SS）患者的 RBP4 水平是否发生改变。
我们在 PubMed、EMBASE 和 The Cochrane Library 进行了系统检索，检索截至 2017 年 3 月 18 日，共纳入 12 项研究，总计 4247 名参与者（2271 名 NAFLD 患者和 1976 名对照者）纳入荟萃分析。
在以下比较中，循环 RBP4 水平没有显著差异：（1）NAFLD 患者与对照组（标准化均数差 [SMD]：0.08；95%CI：-0.21，0.38）；（2）NASH 患者与对照组（SMD：-0.49；95%CI：-1.09，0.12）；（3）SS 患者与对照组（SMD：-0.72；95%CI：-1.64，0.20）；（4）NASH 与 SS 患者（SMD：-0.04；95%CI：-0.32，0.24）。在排除单项研究或减重研究（n=2）后，NAFLD 患者与对照组之间的比较结果基本不变。未发现明显的发表偏倚。然而，研究之间存在显著的异质性，亚组和荟萃回归分析未发现潜在的来源。
循环 RBP4 水平可能与 NAFLD 无关。需要进一步的前瞻性队列研究来证实这些发现。
