Circulating microRNAs in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease

AIM: To identify novel non-invasive biomarkers for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease(NAFLD). METHODS: Twenty patients with histologically proven NAFLD and 20 controls were included. All NAFLD cases were scored using the NAFLD activity score. The rela-tive expressions of miR-197, miR-146 b, miR-10 b, miR-181d, miR-34 a, miR-122, miR-99 a and miR-29 a were analyzed using real-time polymerase chain reaction. RESULTS: Serum levels of miR-181 d, miR-99 a, miR-197 and miR-146 b were significantly lower in biopsy-proven NAFLD patients than in the healthy controls. Serum lev-els of miR-197 and miR-10 b were inversely correlated with degree of inflammation and miR-181 d and miR-99 a were inversely correlated with serum gamma glu-tamyl transferase levels in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis patients. CONCLUSION: NAFLD is associated with altered se-rum miRNA expression pattern. This study provides clues for defining the non-invasive diagnosis of NAFLD.