Central Adiposity is a Strong Predictor of Non‐alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) in South Asian Women

Abstract

Incidence of non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is increasing with increasing obesity rates due to its relation with the metabolic syndrome. This is of concern in the South Asian population since they develop metabolic complications at lower levels of obesity compared to their Western counterparts. Furthermore, the relationship between NAFLD, insulin resistance and obesity is not well characterized in humans. To address this issue, we used a convenience sample of Sri Lankan adult females (n = 34) and collected anthropometric data, adipose tissue specimens (for histology), and fasted serum samples (for metabolic and inflammatory markers). Hepatic steatosis was assessed by ultrasound scanning and used to classify participants as NAFL 0, NAFL 1, and NAFL 2. Waist circumference significantly increased with increasing NAFLD grade. Participants with NAFLD had significantly higher body mass index, hip circumference, and fasting blood glucose, as well as a higher mean adipocyte area in both omental and abdominal areas, indicating a higher degree of adipocyte hypertrophy associated with fatty liver. There were, however, no differences in measures of dyslipidemia. Various adipokines were measured; however, resistin was the only pro‐inflammatory adipokine significantly elevated in NAFL 2. These findings indicate that measures of adiposity and fasting blood glucose may be important indicators of NAFLD in South Asian women.Support or Funding InformationThis research was funded by an International Research/Development Seed Grant from the Office of International Affairs at Texas Tech University, an International Research Seed Grant from the College of Human Sciences at Texas Tech University, and the Obesity Research Cluster at Texas Tech University. NMM is in part supported by the National Institutes of Health National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NIH NCCIH) award number 1 R15 AT008879‐01A1. KAS is a United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) Fellow supported by an Agriculture and Food Research Initiative's (AFRI) Food, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Human Sciences Education and Literacy Initiative (ELI) Predoctoral Fellowship under award number 2017‐67011‐26029. NSK was funded by the International Research Center, University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka (InRC/2015/01).This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2018 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.