A study of the relationship between serum asprosin levels and MAFLD in a population undergoing physical examination

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 14; no. 1; p. 11170
• Main Authors: Lv, Dan, Wang, Zepu, Meng, Cuiqiao, Li, Yan, Ji, Shuai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 15.05.2024; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 692/163; 692/308; Adult; Aged; Asprosin; Biomarkers - blood; Blood Glucose - analysis; Body Mass Index; Body weight; Cholesterol; Cholesterol, LDL - blood; Controlled attenuation parameter; Elasticity Imaging Techniques; Fatty liver; Female; Fibrillin-1 - blood; Hemoglobin; High density lipoprotein; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Liver diseases; Low density lipoprotein; Male; Metabolic; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease; Metabolism; Middle Aged; multidisciplinary; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - blood; Obesity; Obesity - blood; Overweight; Overweight - blood; Physical Examination; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Statistical analysis; Steatosis; Transient elastography; Triglycerides; Triglycerides - blood; Waist Circumference; Controlled attenuation parameter; Metabolic; Transient elastography; Metabolic-associated fatty liver disease; Asprosin
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-62124-w

Asprosin, an adipokine, was recently discovered in 2016. Here, the correlation between asprosin and metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) was examined by quantitatively assessing hepatic steatosis using transient elastography and controlled attenuation parameter (CAP). According to body mass index (BMI), 1276 adult participants were enrolled and categorized into three groups: normal, overweight, and obese. The study collected and evaluated serum asprosin levels, general biochemical indices, liver stiffness measure, and CAP via statistical analysis. In both overweight and obese groups, serum asprosin and CAP were greater than in the normal group ( p  < 0.01). Each group showed a positive correlation of CAP with asprosin ( p  < 0.01). The normal group demonstrated a significant and independent positive relationship of CAP with BMI, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), asprosin, waist circumference (WC), and triglycerides (TG; p  < 0.05). CAP showed an independent positive association ( p  < 0.05) with BMI, WC, asprosin, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and TG in the overweight group, and with high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) showed an independent negative link ( p  < 0.01). CAP showed an independent positive relationship ( p  < 0.05) with BMI, WC, asprosin, TG, LDL-C, FBG, glycated hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), and alanine transferase in the obese group. CAP also showed an independent positive link ( p  < 0.01) with BMI, WC, asprosin, TG, LDL-C, and FBG in all participants while independently and negatively correlated ( p  < 0.01) with HDL-C. Since asprosin and MAFLD are closely related and asprosin is an independent CAP effector, it may offer a novel treatment option for metabolic diseases and MAFLD.