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In light of increasing NAFLD prevalence, early detection and diagnosis are needed for decision-making in clinical practice and could be helpful in the management of patients with NAFLD. The goal of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of CD24 gene expression as a non-invasive tool to detect hepatic steatosis for diagnosis of NAFLD at early stage. These findings will aid in the creation of a viable diagnostic approach., Methods: This study enrolled eighty individuals divided into two groups; a study group included forty cases with bright liver and a group of healthy subjects with normal liver. Steatosis was quantified by CAP. Fibrosis assessment was performed by FIB-4, NFS, Fast-score, and Fibroscan. Liver enzymes, lipid profile, and CBC were evaluated. Utilizing RNA extracted from whole blood, the CD24 gene expression was detected using real-time PCR technique., Results: It was detected that expression of CD24 was significantly higher in patients with NAFLD than healthy controls. The median fold change was 6.56 higher in NAFLD cases compared to control subjects. Additionally, CD24 expression was higher in cases with fibrosis stage F1 compared to those with fibrosis stage F0, as the mean expression level of CD24 was 7.19 in F0 cases as compared to 8.65 in F1 patients but without significant difference ( p = 0.588). ROC curve analysis showed that CD24 ∆CT had significant diagnostic accuracy in the diagnosis of NAFLD ( p = 0.034). The optimum cutoff for CD24 was 1.83 for distinguishing patients with NAFLD from healthy control with sensitivity 55% and specificity 74.4%; and an area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of 0.638 (95% CI: 0.514-0.763) was determined., Conclusion: In the present study, CD24 gene expression was up-regulated in fatty liver. Further studies are required to confer its diagnostic and prognostic value in the detection of NAFLD, clarify its role in the progression of hepatocyte steatosis, and to elucidate the mechanism of this biomarker in the progression of disease.

Background and Aims: NAFLD is one of the fast-growing health problems that affects up to 25% of people worldwide. Numerous miRNAs have been clarified as important regulators of liver pathophysiology, including NAFLD. Thus, we investigated the expression of the MiRNA-34a and MiRNA-192 as diagnostic markers for NAFLD., Patients and Methods: Blood samples were collected from NAFLD cases and healthy controls. The expression profile of both studied miRNAs was detected via real-time PCR analysis., Results: The present study showed that both studied miRNAs were upregulated in NAFLD patients compared to controls. Interestingly, miRNA-34a and MiRNA-192 are upregulated in NAFLD patients with early fibrosis compared to controls [with a fold change of 4.02 ± 11.49 (P = 0.05) and 18.43 ± 47.8 (P = 0.017), respectively]. However, miRNA-34a is downregulated in NAFLD patients with advanced fibrosis compared to controls, with fold expression of 0.65 ± 1.17 (P = 0.831). The area under the receiver operating characteristics (AUROC) for miRNA-34a and miRNA-192 were 0.790 and 0.643, respectively; furthermore, the sensitivities and specificities were 76.7%, 100% for miRNA-34a and 63.3%, and 93.3% for miRNA-192 (P < 0.05). Additionally, MiRNA34a was positively correlated with hypertension and fasting blood sugar, and it also was negatively correlated with hemoglobin level and total leucocyte count (P < 0.05)., Conclusion: The results obtained indicated that both studied miRNAs could potentially be used as diagnostic biomarkers for the early stage of liver fibrosis in NAFLD cases. Also, miRNA-34a was positively correlated with metabolic disorders associated with NAFLD such as hypertension and diabetes. However, their expression showed no association with advanced fibrosis. Thus, larger cohorts are necessitated to certify the utility of serum MiRNA-34a and MiRNA-192 in monitoring the deterioration of NAFLD., (© 2023. The Author(s).)

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Background and Aims: CD163, a surface hemoglobin-haptoglobin scavenger receptor, is expressed on macrophages and monocytes and up-regulated during macrophage activation. This study aimed to evaluate CD163 in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis patients as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in such patients., Methods: Serum samples were collected from 41 NAFLD patients and 14 healthy controls. All cases were subjected to clinical assessment, abdominal ultrasound examination, laboratory assessment including liver function and enzymes, kidney function, and lipid profile. Fib-4 and NAFLD fibrosis score were calculated for all patients. Also, serum levels of CD163 were detected by ELISA technique., Results: The present study showed that BMI, NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS), uric acid, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were significantly elevated in the NAFLD cases compared with healthy controls (P < 0.05). The serum level of sCD163 was considerably higher in NAFLD cases (9.97 ± 9.97 ng/ml) vs. healthy controls (1.87 ± 0.83 ng/ml) (p < 0.001). Circulating level of sCD163 was significantly higher in the obese-diabetic subjects and diabetic non-obese patients as compared with the lean healthy subjects (11.15 ± 7.69 ng/ml) and 11.46 ± 13.83 ng/ml vs. 1.87 ± 0.83 ng/ml, P < 0.05; respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of this marker was 85.4%, and 92.9 for distinguishing patients with NAFLD in obese and/or diabetic subjects from healthy controls., Conclusion: serum level of CD163 can be used as a diagnostic marker for individuals with NAFLD. However, it didn't correlate with NAFLD fibrosis score of those patients and thus couldn't predict the severity of disease., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)