Background: Metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) is a novel definition for hepatic illness related to recognized metabolic disorders. Approximately 38.77% of people worldwide suffer from MAFLD. It has been documented that serum lipids and insulin resistance (IR) are associated with serum adipsin levels. Our study's objective was to investigate the role of serum adipsin in MAFLD.
Methods: Our prospective case-control study was performed at the hospital of Ain Shams University between October 2023 and April 2024 on two groups: The cases group included 50 MAFLD patients, while the control group included 50 healthy individuals. All cases in both groups underwent a full medical history and physical assessment, as well as a laboratory investigation. The correlation of serum adipsin and MAFLD was statistically analyzed.
Results: The analysis of serum adipsin levels revealed a highly significant difference between the groups of the study. Significant positive associations between adipsin serum levels and BMI, WC (cm), FPG, triglycerides, HBA1c, APRI, FIB-4 score, and ALT in the MAFLD group were found. The ROC analysis demonstrated that a level of serum adipsin ˃3082.6 ng/mL was the optimal cut-off value for distinguishing between MAFLD and control cases, with an AUC of 0.919.
Conclusion: Serum adipsin levels were significantly greater in MAFLD cases than in controls. Serum adipsin could be used as a prognostic biomarker for MAFLD.