Sun Lejia, Wang Qing, Liu Meixi, Xu Gang, Yin Huanhuan, Wang Dongyue, Xie Feihu, Jin Bao, Jin Yukai, Yang Huayu, Zhou Junying, Mao Yilei
Department of Liver Surgery, Peking Union Medical College (PUMC) Hospital, PUMC & Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, 100730, Beijing, China.
Department of Medical Examination Center, Hebei General Hospital, Shijiazhuang, 050051, China.
Endocrine. 2020 Aug;69(2):294-302. doi: 10.1007/s12020-020-02319-z. Epub 2020 May 12.
Indicators to assess early liver damage and disease progression in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) remain unsatisfactory. Albumin binding function has been reported to be an early indicator of liver damage in hepatitis and liver cirrhosis. However, its role in NAFLD patients is unknown.
An age/sex-matched, case-control study was performed. Albumin-binding capacity (ABiC) and albumin metal ion binding ability, assessed by ischemia modified albumin (IMA), were measured. Correlation analysis was performed to assess the association of albumin binding function with liver function enzymes and noninvasive liver fibrosis markers.
A total of 80 NAFLD patients and 41 healthy controls were included. Albumin binding function was significantly lower in NAFLD (ABiC: 196.00%, p < 0.001; IMA transformed (IMAT): 0.461, p < 0.001; and IMAT/albumin: 0.947 × 10, p < 0.001) than controls (ABiC: 211.00%; IMAT: 0.575; and IMAT/albumin: 1.206 × 10). Albumin binding function was also found to be significantly different among healthy participants and different severity groups of NAFLD (p < 0.001). Besides, albumin binding function showed positive correlation with BMI (ABiC: r = -0.247, p = 0.011; IMAT: r = -0.243, p = 0.013; IMAT/albumin: r = -0.254, p = 0.009) and FIB-4 index (ABiC: r = 0.230, p = 0.029). The ROC curve suggested that albumin binding function combined with BMI and triglyceride may predict the presence of NAFLD (area under ROC (AUROC) = 0.935, p < 0.001).
Our findings suggest albumin binding function is a novel biomarker for early liver damage and disease progression in NAFLD.
评估非酒精性脂肪性肝病（NAFLD）早期肝损伤和疾病进展的指标仍不尽人意。白蛋白结合功能已被报道为肝炎和肝硬化中肝损伤的早期指标。然而，其在NAFLD患者中的作用尚不清楚。
进行了一项年龄/性别匹配的病例对照研究。测量了通过缺血修饰白蛋白（IMA）评估的白蛋白结合能力（ABiC）和白蛋白金属离子结合能力。进行相关性分析以评估白蛋白结合功能与肝功能酶和非侵入性肝纤维化标志物之间的关联。
共纳入80例NAFLD患者和41例健康对照。NAFLD患者的白蛋白结合功能显著低于对照组（ABiC：196.00%，p < 0.001；IMA转化值（IMAT）：0.461，p < 0.001；IMAT/白蛋白：0.947×10，p < 0.001）（对照组ABiC：211.00%；IMAT：0.575；IMAT/白蛋白：1.206×10）。还发现健康参与者和不同严重程度的NAFLD组之间白蛋白结合功能存在显著差异（p < 0.001）。此外，白蛋白结合功能与BMI呈正相关（ABiC：r = -0.247，p = 0.011；IMAT：r = -0.243，p = 0.013；IMAT/白蛋白：r = -0.254，p = 0.009）和FIB-4指数（ABiC：r = 0.230，p = 0.029）。ROC曲线表明，白蛋白结合功能联合BMI和甘油三酯可预测NAFLD的存在（ROC曲线下面积（AUROC）= 0.935，p < 0.001）。
我们的研究结果表明，白蛋白结合功能是NAFLD早期肝损伤和疾病进展的一种新型生物标志物。
