[Efficacy of antioxidants in treatment of nonalcoholic fatty liver: a systematic review].

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of antioxidants in the treatment of non-alcoholic fatty liver.

Methods: The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE or PUBMED (1978-2011), EMBASE (1978-2011), ISI, OVID Database (1978-2011), CNKI Net and WANFANG database (1978-2011) were searched for relevant randomized controlled trials, with also manual search of the bibliographies of the retrieved articles. The data were synthesized to assess the histological response of the patients (hepatic steatosis, inflammation and fibrosis) and hepatic biochemical changes after the treatments (alanine aminotransferase responses).

Results: Fourteen trials involving 1284 patients were included in the Meta-analysis. The quality of the trials was inconsistent. The data were extracted for meta-analysis or descriptive analysis, which did not yield sufficient evidence that antioxidants could improve hepatic steatosis, inflammation, fibrosis or alanine aminotransferase responses.

Conclusions: The current data do not support a positive therapeutic effect of antioxidants on nonalcoholic fatty liver, and antioxidants are therefore not recommended in the clinical treatment of the condition.