Authors: Claire R Edwards A Katharine Hindle Patricia S Latham Sidney W Fu Fred J Brody
Publish Date: 2012/12/12
Volume: 27, Issue: 4, Pages: 1310-1314
Abstract
Morbidly obese patients are at risk for nonalcoholic steatohepatitis NASH even in the absence of risk factors for liver disease Unfortunately NASH is usually not clinically evident and a definitive noninvasive test for NASH does not exist Resistin a cytokine originating from adipose tissue is involved in insulin resistance and also initiates proinflammatory signaling from hepatic stellate cells This study explores the relationship between resistin expression and liver pathology in bariatric surgery patientsBlood samples from 30 patients undergoing bariatric surgery were collected Total RNA was extracted and cDNA was synthesized Quantitative RTPCR was used to quantify relative gene expression using 18s rRNA gene as an internal control Wedge liver biopsies from these patients were sectioned and stained Based on a previously published scoring method biopsies were assigned an overall NASH severity score and subscores for steatosis inflammation and fibrosis Results were analyzed by using Student’s t testResistin mRNA levels ranged from 05 to 97 A group of five patients with very high resistin expression 4 was identified These patients had a significantly higher average NASH score compared with the rest of the group 79 vs 448 p = 0019 Steatosis and inflammation scores were significantly higher in the highresistin group p 005 for both comparisons There also was a trend toward higher fibrosis score in this group which approached statistical significance p = 0051
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