Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2018. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Mar 21, 2018; 24(11): 1239-1249
Published online Mar 21, 2018. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v24.i11.1239
Serum autotaxin levels are correlated with hepatic fibrosis and ballooning in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Naoyuki Fujimori, Takeji Umemura, Takefumi Kimura, Naoki Tanaka, Ayumi Sugiura, Tomoo Yamazaki, Satoru Joshita, Michiharu Komatsu, Yoko Usami, Kenji Sano, Koji Igarashi, Akihiro Matsumoto, Eiji Tanaka
Naoyuki Fujimori, Takeji Umemura, Takefumi Kimura, Ayumi Sugiura, Tomoo Yamazaki, Satoru Joshita, Michiharu Komatsu, Akihiro Matsumoto, Eiji Tanaka, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Matsumoto 390-8621, Japan
Naoki Tanaka, Department of Metabolic Regulation, Shinshu University Graduate School of Medicine, Matsumoto, Japan, and Research Center for Agricultural Food Industry, Shinshu University, Matsumoto, 390-8621, Japan
Yoko Usami, Kenji Sano, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Shinshu University Hospital, Matsumoto 390-8621, Japan
Koji Igarashi, Bioscience Division, TOSOH Corporation, Kanagawa 252-1123, Japan
Author contributions: Umemura T designed the research; Kimura T, Sugiura A, Yamazaki T, Joshita S, Komatsu M and Matsumoto A treated the patients and collected materials and clinical data from patients; Usami Y and Igarashi K performed the assays; Sano K evaluated the histological findings, Fujimori N and Kimura T analyzed the data; Fujimori N, Kimura T and Tanaka N wrote the paper; Tanaka E supervised it.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Committee for Medical Ethics of Shinshu University School of Medicine Institutional Review Board.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from all patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that no conflict of interest exists.
Data sharing statement: No additional data are available.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Takefumi Kimura, MD, PhD, Doctor, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Gastroenterology, Shinshu University School of Medicine, Asahi 3-1-1, Nagano, Matsumoto 390-8621, Japan. t_kimura@shinshu-u.ac.jp
Telephone: +81-263-372634 Fax: +81-263-329412
Received: January 17, 2018
Peer-review started: January 17, 2018
First decision: January 25, 2018
Revised: February 10, 2018
Accepted: March 3, 2018
Article in press: March 3, 2018
Published online: March 21, 2018
Processing time: 58 Days and 1.3 Hours
Core Tip

Core tip: Patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) exhibited significantly higher serum levels of autotaxin (ATX) than did healthy subjects. Serum ATX levels correlated significantly with ballooning score and fibrosis stage in NAFLD patients and may therefore reflect histological severity in NAFLD.