Elevated miR-33a and miR-224 in steatotic chronic hepatitis C liver biopsies

Table 1 Clinical background of patients enrolled in this study

	CHC	CHC-steatosis	Steatosis
Age (yr, mean ± SD)	42.1 ± 13.2	39.3 ± 14.9	47 ± 11
Gender	10 males, 8 females	17 males, 22 females	9 males, 9 females
Grade1	G1-1	G1-0	-
	G2-2	G2-1
	G3-0	G3-3
	G4-1	G4-2
	G5-4	G5-4
	G6-5	G6-5
	G7-1	G7-5
	G8-2	G8-4
	G9-1	G9-2
	G10-0	G10-1
	G11-1	G11-1
Stage1	S0-1	S0-0	-
	S1-3	S1-4
	S2-9	S2-12
	S3-4	S3-10
	S4-1	S4-2
Steatosis grade1	-	St0-0	St0-0
		St1-12	St1-0
		St2-7	St2-1
		St3-9	St3-3
		St4-0	St4-12
AST (U/L, mean ± SD)	54 ± 262	69 ± 58	54 ± 22
ALT (U/L, mean ± SD)	79 ± 39	114 ± 91	95 ± 43
GGT (U/L, mean ± SD)	39 ± 39	83 ± 123	219 ± 185
AP (U/L, mean ± SD)	119 ± 74	124 ± 100	239 ± 167
Cholesterol (mmol/L, mean ± SD)	4.59 ± 0.84	3.30 ± 1.93	6.23 ± 1.24
Triglyceride (mmol/L, mean ± SD)	0.96 ± 0.51	0.94 ± 0.68	2.31 ± 1.46

¹Number of cases for each grade and stage are given. The histologic grade and stage were determined according to the Ishak scoring system;

²The numerical data are presented as the average ± SD. ALT: Alanine transaminase; AP: Alkaline phosphatase; AST: Aspartate transaminase; CHC: Chronic hepatitis C; GGT: Gamma-glutamyl-transferase.

Table 2 Non-parametric Spearman's rank correlation between serum biochemical values, histology grade and miRNA expression levels

Sample group	Histologic or serum parameter	Correlating miRNA
CHC	Grade	miR-33a (P < 0.006; r = -0.7)
CHC-steatosis	Triglyceride	miR-21 (P < 0.05; r = -0.4)
Steatosis	AST	miR-21 (P < 0.004; r = 0.8)
		miR-33a (P < 0.05; r = -0.7)
	AP	miR-33a (P < 0.02; r = -0.8)

AP: Alkaline phosphatase; AST: Aspartate transaminase; CHC: Chronic hepatitis C; miRNA: MicroRNA.