Circulating level of CTRP1 in patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD): is it through insulin resistance?

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered as one of the most common liver diseases. It is robustly linked to obesity and insulin resistance and is regarded as hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome (MetS). Adipokines are involved in the pathophysiology of liver diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the plasma concentrations of CTRP1 (complement-C1q TNF-related protein 1) in 22 patients with NAFLD, 22 patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), 22 patients with NAFLD+T2DM and 21 healthy controls, as well as their correlation with the level of metabolic and hepatic parameters. Plasma concentration of CTRP1 was measured with ELISA method. Plasma concentration of CTRP1 in patients with NAFLD, T2DM and NAFLD+T2DM were significantly higher than healthy subjects (p<0.0001). Moreover, we observed significant positive correlations between plasma level of CTRP1 and fasting blood glucose (FBG) (p<0.001), homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) (p<0.001), body mass index (BMI) (p = 0.001), alanine amino transferase (ALT) (p = 0.002), gamma glutamyl transferase (γ-GT) (p<0.001) and liver stiffness (LS) (p<0.001). Our results indicate the strong association of CTRP1 with insulin resistance in NAFLD. Also, it seems that CTRP1 can be considered as an emerging biomarker for NAFLD, however, more studies are necessary to unravel the role of CTRP1 in NAFLD pathogenesis.