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Objectives: To assess whether meal or water intake may affect the measurement of the ultrasound (US) attenuation coefficient (AC) imaging, a parameter that is directly related to liver fat content., Methods: The study was performed in two centers (Italy and USA). AC was obtained using the ATI algorithm implemented in the Aplio i-series US systems (Canon Medical Systems, Japan) by one operator at each center. Measurements were performed at baseline and 5, 15, 30, 45 minutes after drinking 500 mL of water (group 1), or 30, 45, 60, 90, 120 minutes after eating a meal of about 600 kcal (group 2). Multilevel generalized estimating equations for repeated measures were used for the statistical analysis to consider the clustered nature of the data., Results: Twenty-six individuals were enrolled: 11 (10 females; age, 43.7 ± 12.5 years) in Italy and 15 (10 females; age, 60.7 ± 6.3 years) in USA. At B-mode US, 10 (38.5%) had liver steatosis. The baseline AC values, in decibel/centimeter/megahertz, were 0.64 (0.12) in group 1 and 0.66 (0.13) in group 2. There was not any significant difference in AC values at every time-point after water or meal intake either in group 1 or group 2. This result did not change including sex, age, and skin-to-liver capsule into the models., Conclusions: The measurement of the AC, which is a biomarker of liver steatosis, does not require a fasting state and drinking water does not affect the result., (© 2024 American Institute of Ultrasound in Medicine.)

Introduction: Epidemiological studies highlight the presence of associations between per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure with liver damage. In 2013, PFAS contamination was discovered in Veneto (Italy), leading to the implementation of a Surveillance Program (SP). Our objective is to investigate the association between PFAS exposure and biomarkers of liver function using single-pollutant and mixture approaches, while exploring the sex-specific differences and the mediating role of obesity in the association., Methods: The study included 42,094 subjects aged ≥20 years participating in the SP. We used generalized additive models to investigate the association between several PFAS and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels, adjusting for possible confounders and stratifying by sex. Results were back-transformed to show predicted percentage changes in outcomes per ln-unit increase in PFAS levels; furthermore, we explored the role of BMI in the abovementioned causal pathway, considering it as a potential confounder or mediator PFAS joint effect was investigated using Quantile G-computation., Results: One ln-unit increase in PFHxS concentrations was associated with a 1.49% (95%CI: 0.87, 2.12) and a 0.84% (95% CI: 0.27, 1.40) increase in ALT levels, in males and females respectively; one ln-unit increase in PFOA concentrations was associated with a 1.03% (95%CI: 0.50, 1.55) increase in ALT levels in males, and a 0.52% (95% CI: 0.22, 0.82) and a 0.60% (95% CI: 0.25, 0.96) increase in AST levels in females and males. PFOS showed no association with ALT and AST levels. Quantile G-computation revealed that an interquartile increase in the PFAS mixture was associated with a 3.02% increase (95% CI: 1.65, 4.43) and a 1.65% (95% CI: 0.77, 2.5) increase in ALT levels, in females and males. Mediation analysis suggested that BMI suppressed the association between PFAS and ALT levels, with positive direct effects higher than the total effects., Conclusion: Our findings suggest sex-specific associations between PFAS exposure and liver function biomarkers and underscore the need for additional studies on potential mediators., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Aim: The aim of this paper was to assess circulating levels of metalloprotease2 (MMP2), metalloprotease9 (MMP9) and tissue inhibitor of metalloprotease2 (TIMP2) in patients with HCV-related chronic hepatitis to verify whether there was a relationship between these molecules and biochemical and histological features., Methods: Forty-nine neodiagnosed and untreated patients affected by chronic C hepatitis and twenty healthy control subjects were investigated. In overall study series, circulating levels of MMP2, MMP9 and TIMP2 were assessed by ELISA commercial kit (R&D Systems). Patients with chronic hepatitis undergone to liver biopsy and histological features were examined according to Histological Activity Index (HAI)., Results: Mean values of MMP2 (1989+/-207 ng/mL. vs 1112+/-120 ng/mL), MMP9 (62.44+/-11.9 ng/mL vs 39.67+/-4.6 ng/mL) and TIMP2 (48.3+/-8.1 ng/mL vs 15.16+/-4.1 ng/mL) were significantly higher (P<0.001) in patients than in controls. Among investigated molecules, only MMP2 was independently related to inflammation and fibrosis according to grading (P=0.036) and staging (P=0.032) score. Moreover, MMP2 but not MMP9 and TIMP2 was related to AST (P=0.015), ALT (P=0.049) and AST/platelet ratio index (P=0.001). No relationship (P>0.05) was found between MMP2 and MMP9 or TIMP2., Conclusions: Our study confirms an altered pattern of metalloproteases and their tissue inhibitors in subjects with chronic C hepatitis and such alterations can contribute to development of liver fibrosis. In addition MMP2 is related to inflammation and fibrosis as assessed by liver biopsy and laboratory features. The serial detection of MMP2 could help to monitor evolution of disease and to predict onset of cirrhosis.