Study of Serum Chemerin Level in Chronic Hepatitis C Virus Patients with and without Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Abstract Background Chronic hepatitis C (CHC) has a number of features that suggest that it should be recognized not only as a viral disease but also as a metabolic liver disease that encompasses insulin resistance (IR), liver steatosis, impaired glucose tolerance or type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and disturbances in lipid metabolism. Objective To evaluate the role of serum Chemerin as a biomarker in patients with chronic hepatitis C virus with and without Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and its correlation to disease progress and activity and to evaluate its relationship with various laboratory parameters of the disease. Patients and Methods Type of study: A case control study. Study setting: outpatient clinics and inpatient wards at King Fahd hospital, Medina, Saudi Arabia & outpatient clinics at Ain Shams university hospitals, Egypt. Study Period: 6 months. Study Population: The study was conducted on normal populations, chronic HCV patients with NAFLD, and chronic HCV patients without NAFLD. Results In the present study the mean chemerin level was found to be statistically higher in chronic hepatitis C virus patients with NAFLD group compared to chronic hepatitis C virus patients without NAFLD group and was found to be statistically higher in both previous groups than in control group (p value <0.05). There was significant positive correlation between serum chemerin with ALT (p value <0.01), AST (p value<0.01), BMI (P value<0.01), INR (p value<0.01), triglyceride (p value<0.01), FIB4 index (p value <0.01) and NAFLD fibrosis score (p value <0.01). There was significant negative correlation between serum chemerin with serum ALBUMIN (p value <0.01). Conclusion The results obtained in the current study demonstrate that the serum chemerin level increased in parallel with the worsening liver functional reserves in CHC patients and serum chemerin level incrased in patients with CHC associated with NAFLD. It could be concluded that chemerin may be considered as additional tools for assessment of prognosis of CHC and monitoring the virally derived metabolic abnormality.