PIN1, a perspective on genetic biomarker for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

Jing-Zhang Wang; Yu-Hua Zhang; Jing Bai; Yan-Wei Liu; Wen-Tao Du

doi:10.1016/j.metop.2019.100014

PIN1, a perspective on genetic biomarker for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)

Metabol Open. 2019 Aug 6:3:100014. doi: 10.1016/j.metop.2019.100014. eCollection 2019 Sep.

Authors

Jing-Zhang Wang¹, Yu-Hua Zhang¹, Jing Bai¹, Yan-Wei Liu¹, Wen-Tao Du¹

Affiliation

¹ Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, College of Life Sciences and Food Engineering, Hebei University of Engineering, Handan, 056038, PR China.

Abstract

Objective: A novel genetic and molecular basis of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was explored.

Study design: A 38-year-old male, who has no bad living and dietary habits, was diagnosed as NAFLD. The potential pathogenic role of Pin1 was evaluated by enzyme-linked immunosorbent (ELISA) assay and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) sequencing.

Results: ELISA determined a six-time higher concentration of plasma Pin1 compared to our previous data. Nine PIN1 SNPs were sequenced and classified according to their NAFLD-pathogenic risks, suggesting that rs2233678 and rs2287839 may be the most important genotypes that result in Pin1 overexpression and NAFLD development.

Conclusion: In summary, this work explores a novel basis for early-onset NAFLD and highlights that elevated plasma Pin1 may predict NAFLD risk at early stage. Hypothetically, inhibiting Pin1 may benefit NAFLD prevention in the future.

Keywords: Early diagnosis; FGF-2, fibroblast growth factor 2; Genetic basis; HIF-1α, hypoxia inducible factor-1α; NAFLD, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; PPARα, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor α; Pin1; Plasma biomarker; SNP, single nucleotide polymorphism; TGF-β1, transforming growth factor-β1; VEGF, vascular endothelial growth factor.