Objective: To examine the relationships between the level of serum visfatin and obesity, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) in children and adolescents.
Methods: Serum visfatin levels of 106 obese children/adolescents (including 49 non-NAFLD children and adolescents and 57 NAFLD children/adolescents in which consisting of 42 mild ones, 15 moderate-to-severe ones) with another 69 lean children/adolescents as their controls, were examined by indirect sandwich ELISA.
Results: When comparing the serum visfatin levels, there was no significant difference noticed between the obese group (1.71±0.37) ng/ml and the lean group (1.75±0.37) ng/ml (P=0.455). With the severity of NAFLD, the serum visfatin level showed an elevation in obese children and adolescents [obese without NAFLD (1.59±0.36) ng/ml, obese with mild NAFLD (1.74±0.36) ng/ml, obese with moderate-to-severe NAFLD (1.97±0.36) ng/ml, P<0.05]. In the obese group, serum visfatin levels seemed to be related to age (β=-0.326, P=0.000), alanine aminotransferase (ALT) (β=0.286, P=0.004) and the degree of NAFLD (β=0.246, P=0.014).
Conclusion: The level of serum visfatin was related to non-alcoholic fatty liver in obese children and adolescent.