Fatty acid composition of blood serum and erythrocyte membranes in men with steatosis and steatohepatitis with normal transaminase activity

Aim. To study the characteristics of the fatty acid (FA) profi le of blood serum and erythrocyte membranes in patients with two forms of fatty liver disease (metabolic + alcoholic): steatosis and steatohepatitis with normal transaminase activity.

Materials and methods. We examined 33 men (50.7 ± 9.6 years) with fatty liver disease (metabolic and alcoholic) with fi brosis F ≤ 1 (FibroTest). According to the ActiTest results, patients were divided into groups of steatosis – with minimal (A0–1) activity (n = 17) and steatohepatitis – with moderate/severe (A2–3) necroinfl ammatory activity (n = 16). The FA composition of blood serum and erythrocyte membranes was studied using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry Agilent 7000B (Agilent Technologies, Inc., USA). Methods of unpaired statistics using volcano plot and discriminant analysis based on orthogonal least squares (Orthogonal Partial Least Squares Discriminant Analysis, OPLS-DA), ROC analysis were applied.

Results. Volcano plot analysis showed that in patients with fatty liver disease (metabolic and alcoholic) with normal transaminase activity, serum levels of stearic C18:0 (p = 0.016), arachidic C20:0 (p = 0.023), ratio saturated / polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) (p = 0.001) were statistically signifi cantly higher in the steatohepatitis group compared with the steatosis group. The total content in the blood serum of all PUFA (p = 0.003), margaric C17:0 (p = 0.011), the sum of two omega-3 PUFA – eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5n-3) and docosahexaenoic acid (C22:6n-3) (p = 0.04), the total content of all omega-3 PUFA (p = 0.042) were statistically signifi cantly lower in patients with steatohepatitis. OPLS-DA demonstrated fairly accurate separation of steatohepatitis and steatosis using individual FA and their ratios. When individual FA and their ratios were included in the analysis, a model was obtained with AUC = 0.827 (95% confi dence interval 0.499–1.0), sensitivity 82.2% and specifi city 80.7%.

Conclusion. FA in blood serum and erythrocyte membranes appear to be promising biomarkers of steatohepatitis with normal levels of transaminases.

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