Increased Serum Adipsin Correlates with MAFLD and Metabolic Risk Abnormalities

Jie Pan; Qiuyan Li; Yan Sun; Yingying Gu; Yijie Ding; Nengzhi Pang; Yujia Zhou; Lei Pei; Mengqi Gao; Sixi Ma; Ying Xiao; Feilong Wu; De Hu; Yu-Ming Chen; Lili Yang

doi:10.2147/DMSO.S396335

Increased Serum Adipsin Correlates with MAFLD and Metabolic Risk Abnormalities

Diabetes Metab Syndr Obes. 2023 Jan 23:16:187-200. doi: 10.2147/DMSO.S396335. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jie Pan¹, Qiuyan Li¹, Yan Sun¹, Yingying Gu¹, Yijie Ding¹, Nengzhi Pang¹, Yujia Zhou¹, Lei Pei¹, Mengqi Gao¹, Sixi Ma¹, Ying Xiao¹, Feilong Wu¹, De Hu¹, Yu-Ming Chen², Lili Yang¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nutrition, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, People's Republic of China.

Abstract

Purpose: A panel of international experts proposed a new definition of fatty liver in 2020, namely metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD). As an adipokine, adipsin is closely related to metabolic-related diseases. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship among MAFLD, serum adipsin, and metabolic risk abnormalities.

Methods: Our study was a cross-sectional study based on the first follow-up of the Guangzhou Nutrition and Health Study (GNHS). A total of 908 patients with hepatic steatosis were involved in our study. Detailed data of patients were collected based upon questionnaire information, physical examination, and blood biochemical test.

Results: Among the 908 patients, 789 patients were diagnosed with MAFLD. The levels of serum adipsin in the MAFLD group and non-MAFLD group were (3543.00 (3187.94-3972.50) ng/mL) and (3095.33 (2778.71-3354.77) ng/mL) (P < 0.001), respectively. After adjusting for potential confounders, adipsin levels were found to be associated with MAFLD. The OR was 3.46 (95% CI: 1.57-7.64) for adipsin when comparing subjects in the highest tertile with those in the lowest tertile. With the increase in the number of metabolic risk abnormalities, both the levels of serum adipsin and the proportion of moderate to severe fatty liver increased (all p-trend < 0.001).

Conclusion: Increased serum adipsin correlates with MAFLD. Both adipsin levels as well as fatty liver severity increase with higher numbers of metabolic risk abnormalities.

Keywords: adipsin; hepatic steatosis; metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease; metabolic risk abnormalities.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the State Key Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 81730090) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81872613).