Expression and clinical significance of serum microRNA-122 in liver fibrosis of patients with chronic hepatitis B / 中华传染病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To evaluate the expression of serum microRNA (miRNA )-122 in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with different stages of liver fibrosis ,and to investigate its relevance with the clinical parameters .Methods Totally 138 CHB patients and 30 healthy controls were enrolled .Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to measure the relative expression of miRNA-122 in serum . Serum levels of ALT ,AST ,γ-glutamyl-transferase (γ-GT) ,alkaline phosphatase (ALP) ,total bilirubin (TBil) ,albumin ,prothrombin time (PT ) and HBV DNA were measured ,and their correlations with serum miRNA-122 were analyzed .Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curev analysis was performed for miRNA-122 to compare healthy controls and CHB patients with fibrosis .Non-parametric t-test was used for comparison between groups .Results The relative expressions of serum miRNA-122 in patients with CHB and healthy controls were 4 .41 ± 1 .32 and 1 .47 ± 0 .58 , respectively , with significantly statistical difference (t＝3 .16 ,P＜0 .01).The relative expression levels of serum miRNA-122 in G0－G4 patients with CHB were 2 .31 ± 0 .00 ,4 .83 ± 0 .26 ,4 .72 ± 0 .85 ,5 .45 ± 0 .97 ,and 5 .98 ± 0 .67 , respectively ,and the difference was statistically significant (F＝2 .71 ,P＜0 .05).The relative expression levels of serum miRNA-122 in S0－S4 patients with CHB were 5 .44 ± 0 .94 ,5 .20 ± 0 .35 ,4 .29 ± 1 .39 , 3 .82 ± 1 .26 ,and 3 .26 ± 0 .88 ,respectively ,the difference was statistically significant (F＝0 .72 , P＜0 .05).Serum level of miRNA-122 in CHB patients with significant fibrosis (S2 －S4) was significantly lower compared with those with mild fibrosis (S0－S1).Serum miRNA-122 level was positively correlated with ALT (r＝0 .45 ,P＜0 .01) ,AST (r＝0 .37 , P＜0 .05) ,TBil (r＝0 .62 , P＜0 .01) ,HBV DNA (r＝0 .32 ,P＜ 0 .05) and liver inflammation grades (r＝ －0 .56 , P＜ 0 .01) ,while it was negatively correlated with liver fibrosis stage (r＝ 0 .33 , P＜ 0 .05) and showed no relation with serum ALP (r＝0 .13) ,γ-GT (r＝0 .16) ,PT (r＝ －0 .31) and albumin (r＝0 .02) (all P＞0 .05).The area under curve (AUC) value for miRNA-122 in the differentiation between CHB patients and control group was 0 .92 , and the AUC for predicting significant fibrosis and cirrhosis were 0 .78 and 0 .81 ,respectively .Conclusion Serum miRNA-122 is closely related to the replication of HBV ,liver damage and liver fibrosis stage .It may play a suppressive role on the HBV replication and the development of liver fibrosis.