Effects of laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy on nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and TGF- β signaling pathway

This study enrolled 36 severely obese patients who underwent LSG at our hospital from January 2020 to April 2022. As a pilot study, proteomic analysis was conducted on six patients using serum collected before and at 6 months after LSG, and significantly fluctuating proteins were extracted. Subsequently, verification by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using collected serum was performed on the remaining 30 patients. The mean weight of enrolled patients was 118.5 kg. Proteomic analysis identified 1,912 proteins, many of which were related to the TGF-β signaling pathway. Among these proteins, we focused on five TGF-β-related proteins: asporin, EMILIN-1, platelet factor-4, serglycin, and thrombospondin-1. Verification by ELISA revealed that asporin (p = 0.006) and thrombospondin-1 (p = 0.043) levels significantly fluctuated before and after LSG. Univariate analysis with a linear regression model showed that aspartate aminotransferase (p = 0.045), asporin (p = 0.011), and thrombospondin-1 (p = 0.022) levels were significantly associated with postoperative liver fibrosis. On multivariate analysis, asporin was an independent prognostic factor for postoperative liver fibrosis (95% confidence interval: 0.114-1.291, p = 0.002). TGF-β-related proteins dramatically fluctuated before and after LSG and were correlated with NAFLD pathogenesis. Asporin may be a useful prognostic marker of liver fibrosis in NAFLD after LSG.PMID:38171883 | DOI:10.1507/endocrj.EJ23-0411
Source: Endocrine Journal - Category: Endocrinology Authors: Source Type: research