The relationship between serum miR-122 levels and the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with hepatitis B-related cirrhosis
Objective To investigate the association between serum miR-122 levels and the severity of liver fibrosis in hepatitis B-related cirrhotic(HBV-LC)patients.Methods A total of 98 blood samples were collected from HBV-LC patients from May 2022 to December 2023,forming the HBV-LC group.Meanwhile,blood samples from 40 healthy individuals were collected as the control group.Serum miR-122 expression levels and liver biochemical markers were tested in all participants.The HBV-LC group was divided into stage S0(19 cases),S1(22 cases),S2(23 cases),S3(18 cases),and S4(16 cases)based on the degree of liver fibrosis.The differences in miR-122 and liver biochemical markers across different stages were compared.The correlation between serum miR-122 levels and fibrosis markers were analyzed.A logistic regression model was used to analyze the risk factors for liver fibrosis in the HBV-LC group,and a ROC curve was constructed.Results In the HBV-LC group,the levels of aspartate aminotransferase(AST),alanine aminotransferase(ALT),total bilirubin(TBil),alpha-fetoprotein(AFP),gamma-glutamyltransferase(GGT),and the expression level of miR-122 were(59.80±13.60)U/L,(67.89±14.94)U/L,(19.07±4.20)μmol/L,(13.06±3.88)ng/mL,(76.46±20.31)U/L,and(4.03±1.38),respectively,which were significantly higher than those of(23.23±5.17)U/L,(21.22±4.98)U/L,(11.33±3.05)μmol/L,(3.54±1.12)ng/mL,(29.81±7.28)U/L,(1.25±0.37)in the control group(P＜0.05).With the progression of liver fibrosis stages,the levels of ALT,AST,TBil,AFP,GGT increased,whereas the miR-122 expression decreased(P＜0.05).Serum miR-122 expression levels in the HBV-LC group were negatively correlated with AFP,AST,ALT,GGT,Fibrosis-4 Index(FIB-4),AST to Platelet Ratio Index(APRI),TBIL,and Forns index(P＜0.05).The result of Logistic regression analysis indicated that alcohol consumption and lower serum miR-122 expression levels are risk factors for liver fibrosis in HBV-LC patients(P＜0.05).The ROC curve analysis demonstrated that miR-122 expression levels have a high diagnostic efficiency for liver fibrosis(S1～S4)with an area under the curve of 0.939,a sensitivity of 94.7％,and a specificity of 91.1％.Conclusion The study shows that serum miR-122 levels decrease as liver fibrosis worsen in patients with hepatitis B virus-related cirrhosis and are significantly correlated with liver biochemical markers and fibrosis markers.Alcohol consumption and low serum miR-122 expression are important risk factors for the progression of liver fibrosis.Therefore,serum miR-122 expression levels may serve as an effective biomarker for assessing the degree of liver fibrosis in patients with HBV-LC and predicting disease progression,thus offering significant clinical application value.
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