Adipokines, cytokines and body fat stores in hepatitis C virus liver steatosis

Table 1 Differences in biochemical variables, body mass index and total lean and total fat area between patients and controls

	Patients		Controls
	n	X ± SD, median (IQ range)	n	X ± SD, median (IQ range)
Insulin (μU/mL)	44	12.48 ± 15.65, 7.89 (4.63-14.32)	10	8.34 ± 4.34, 7.15 (5.08-10.63)	Z = 0.43; NS
Resistin (ng/mL)	44	4.97 ± 1.76, 4.90 (3.98-5.60)	10	4.28 ± 1.42, 4.97 (3.32-5.29)	Z = 0.88; NS
Adiponectin (ng/mL)	44	11.99 ± 8.30, 9.54 (6.04-17.16)	16	24.92 ± 21.84, 19.05 (13.53-21.58)	Z = 3.18; P = 0.001
Leptin (ng/mL)	44	12.25 ± 15.83, 4.23 (1.15-17.78)	10	18.41 ± 16.03, 12.89 (4.65-34.42)	Z = 1.78; NS
Tumor necrosis factor-α (pg/mL)	56	10.65 ± 4.14, 10.18 (7.15-13.08)	19	6.05 ± 1.90, 5.20 (4.40-8.00)	Z = 4.56; P < 0.001
Interleukin-6 (pg/mL)	53	4.28 ± 4.75, 2.0 (2.0-4.29)	19	5.90 ± 1.64, 5.0 (5.0-6.60)	Z = 2.97; P = 0.003
Body mass index (kg/m2)	56	24.19 ± 3.44	19	25.20 ± 3.42	t = 1.02; NS
Total fat mass (g)	50	19929 ± 11944	19	21443 ± 6393	t = 0.54; NS
Total lean mass (g)	50	48284 ± 8848	19	50131 ± 15796	t = 0.64; NS

Comparisons were made using non-parametric tests, such as Mann-Whitney’s U test (Z) or parametric ones (Student’s t-test). NS: Not significant.

Table 2 Anthropometric measurements in patients with marked or less marked liver steatosis

	Steatosis over the median		Steatosis below the median
	n	X ± SD	n	X ± SD
Left arm fat mass (g)	27	1345.04 ± 871.98	24	783.30 ± 577.62	t = 2.68; P = 0.01
Right arm fat mass (g)	27	1396.97 ± 1084.44	24	852.37 ± 827.60	t = 2.00; P = 0.05
Trunk fat mass (g)	27	12673.68 ± 6077.05	24	7939.57 ± 5027.19	t = 3.01; P = 0.004
Left leg fat mass (g)	27	3919.72 ± 2533.87	24	2683.13 ± 2018.77	t = 1.91; NS
Right leg fat mass (g)	27	3948.29 ± 2626.75	24	2805.25 ± 1905.64	t = 1.76; NS
Total body fat mass (g)	27	23981.22 ± 12381.84	24	15733.66 ± 9812.41	t = 2.61; P = 0.012
Left arm lean mass (g)	26	2769.64 ± 783.77	24	2899.09 ± 941.35	t = 0.53; NS
Right arm lean mass (g)	26	2749.02 ± 819.68	24	3064.65 ± 1649.64	t = 0.87; NS
Trunk lean mass (g)	26	24458.49 ± 4791.16	24	23122.30 ± 4155.06	t = 1.05; NS
Left leg lean mass (g)	26	7469.77 ± 1684.70	24	7011.75 ± 1945.39	t = 0.89; NS
Right leg lean mass (g)	26	7651.20 ± 1664.56	24	7404.65 ± 1444.64	t = 0.56; NS
Total lean mass (g)	26	48592.11 ± 9723.42	24	47309.62 ± 8352.70	t = 0.50; NS
Body mass index (kg/m2)	28	25.55 ± 2.51	27	22.79 ± 3.76	t = 2.61; P = 0.012
Trunk fat/legs fat	27	1.85 ± 0.87	24	1.56 ± 0.42	t = 1.49; NS

NS: Not significant.

Table 3 Biochemical variables in patients with steatosis over the median or below the median

	Steatosis over the median		Steatosis below the median
	n	X ± SD, median (IQ range)	n	X ± SD, median (IQ range)
Insulin (μU/mL)	24	15.30 ± 19.42, 11.20 (6.59-16.46)	20	9.09 ± 8.72, 7.30 (3.87-11.62)	Z = 1.89; P = 0.059
HOMA	24	1645.68 ± 2828.28, 1068 (644-1524)	20	825.01 ± 801.41, 645.5 (327.8-1082.0)	Z = 2.15; P = 0.03
Resistin (ng/mL)	24	4.66 ± 0.96, 4.87 (4.19-5.37)	20	5.34 ± 2.38, 5.03 (3.88-6.12)	Z = 1.03; NS
Adiponectin (ng/mL)	24	11.77 ± 6.92, 11.18 (5.45-17.62)	20	12.26 ± 9.90, 8.38 (6.04-16.65)	Z = 0.21; NS
Leptin (ng/mL)	24	10.85 ± 12.45, 6.23 (1.35-17.20)	20	13.92 ± 19.35, 2.72 (0.79-32.89)	Z = 0.79; NS
Tumor necrosis factor-α (pg/mL)	28	11.31 ± 4.90, 11.20 (6.84-14.18)	28	10.00 ± 3.17, 9.56 (7.19-12.75)	Z = 1.00; NS
Interleukin (pg/mL)	25	5.06 ± 5.17, 2.0 (2.0-5.94)	28	3.59 ± 4.31, 2.0 (2.0-2.5)	Z = 1.14; NS
Cholesterol (mg/dL)	28	167 ± 36.82	28	174.2 ± 45.56	t = 0.65; NS
LDL cholesterol (mg/dL)	27	95.04 ± 34.17	28	103.86 ± 36.48	t = 1.01; NS
HDL cholesterol (mg/dL)	28	46.71 ± 14.87	28	42.86 ± 13.82	t = 0.92; NS
Triglycerides (mg/dL)	28	136.25 ± 114.27	28	145.96 ± 93.04	t = 0.35; NS

Comparisons were made using non-parametric tests, such as Mann-Whitney’s U test (Z). NS: Not significant.

Table 4 Correlations between body composition parameters and adipokines, proinflammatory cytokines and insulin resistance

	Leptin	Adipo-nectin	Insulin	HOMA	TNF-α	IL-6	Resistin
Trunk fat	ρ = 0.61, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.56, P < 0.001	ρ = 0.55, P < 0.001
Left leg fat	ρ = 0.70, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.44, P = 0.005	ρ = 0.44, P = 0.005
Right leg fat	ρ = 0.62, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.42, P = 0.006	ρ = 0.42, P = 0.006
Right arm fat	ρ = 0.40, P = 0.011		ρ = 0.58 P < 0.001	ρ = 0.57 P < 0.001
Left arm fat	ρ = 0.51, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.62, P < 0.001	ρ = 0.63, P < 0.001
Total fat	ρ = 0.64, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.54, P < 0.001	ρ = 0.53, P < 0.001
Total lean		ρ = -0.35, P = 0.032			ρ = -0.31, P = 0.029
Left arm lean		ρ = -0.37, P = 0.02			ρ = -0.33, P = 0.021
Right arm lean		ρ = -0.37, P = 0.02			ρ = -0.29, P = 0.04
Left leg lean
Trunk lean		ρ = -0.34, P = 0.021			ρ = -0.33, P = 0.021	ρ = -0.34, P = 0.018
Right leg lean					ρ = -0.29, P = 0.039
Total fat/total lean	ρ = 0.65, P < 0.001		ρ = -0.49, P = 0.001	ρ = 0.49, P = 0.001
Trunk fat/trunk lean	ρ = 0.63, P < 0.001		ρ = -0.31, P = 0.036	ρ = 0.52, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.31, P = 0.036
Right arm fat/right arm lean	ρ = 0.60, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.55, P < 0.001	ρ = 0.53, P < 0.001
Left arm fat/left arm lean	ρ = 0.69, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.58, P = 0.001	ρ = 0.57, P < 0.001
Right leg fat/right leg lean	ρ = 0.66, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.38, P = 0.016	ρ = 0.39, P = 0.014
Left leg fat/left leg lean	ρ = 0.69, P < 0.001		ρ = 0.58, P < 0.001	ρ = 0.57, P < 0.001
High density lipoprotein cholesterol		ρ = 0.56, P < 0.001					ρ = -0.41, P = 0.012
Low density lipoprotein cholesterol	ρ = 0.31, P = 0.046

Only the significant relationships are provided (Spearman’s ρ test). TNF-α: Tumor necrosis factor α; IL-6: Interleukin-6.

Table 5 Results of the logistic regression analysis performed in order to look for which parameters were independently associated with liver steatosis

		B	E.T.	Wald	Gl	Sig.	Exp (B)
Step 1	TrunK fat	0.000	0.000	6.157	1	0.013	1.000
	Constant	1.530	0.751	4.147	1	0.042	4.618

E.T.: Standard error; Gl: df (degrees of freedom); Sig.: Significance; Exp (B): Odd ratio.