| Objective To investigate the expression levels of serum chitinase-like protein 40 (YKL-40) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate oxidase 2 (NOX2) in patients with metabolism-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), and to analyze their relationship with liver fibrosis. Methods From April 2020 to December 2021, 108 MAFLD patients (MAFLD group) and 108 healthy subjects (control group) who were treated in Baoding People’s Hospital were gathered. The evaluation of liver fibrosis degree was divided into non-fibrosis group (60 cases, liver stiffness value <8.0 kPa) and fibrosis group (48 cases, liver stiffness value ≥8.0 kPa) according to the liver stiffness value obtained by transient elastography. The differences in YKL-40, NOX2 and the clinical data were compared. Logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the influencing factors of liver fibrosis in MAFLD patients. The predictive power of YKL-40 and NOX2 for liver fibrosis was evaluated by ROC curve. Results The serum levels of YKL-40 and NOX2 in the MAFLD group were lower than those in the control group (P< 0.05). The levels of YKL-40 and NOX2 in fibrosis group were significantly higher than those in non-fibrosis group (P<0.05). Regression analysis showed that, age (OR=1.647, 95%CI：1.053~2.575, P=0.029), HOMA-IR(OR=1.758, 95%CI：1.083~2.853, P=0.022), YKL-40(OR=2.016, 95%CI：1.237~3.284, P=0.004), NOX(OR=2.292, 95%CI：1.388~3.786, P=0.001) were the influencing factors of hepatic fibrosis in MAFLD patients (P<0.05). The area under the curve (AUC) of YKL-40 and NOX2 independently predicted liver fibrosis in MAFLD patients was 0.833 and 0.838, respectively, and the AUC of YKL-40 combined with NOX2 predicted liver fibrosis in MAFLD patients was 0.922. It was better than a single index (Zboth combined-YKL-40=2.268, P=0.023, Zboth combined-NOX2=1.999, P=0.046). Conclusions The serum levels of YKL-40 and NOX2 in MAFLD patients rise, and they are related to liver fibrosis. YKL-40 combined with NOX2 can be used as a biomarker for predicting liver fibrosis. |
