Evaluation of Plasma Trace Elements in Different Stages of Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

• Published in: Biological trace element research Vol. 188; no. 2; pp. 326 - 333
• Main Authors: Asprouli, Eleni, Kalafati, Ioanna Panagiota, Sakellari, Aikaterini, Karavoltsos, Sotirios, Vlachogiannakos, John, Revenas, Konstantinos, Kokkinos, Alexander, Dassenakis, Manos, Dedoussis, George V., Kalogeropoulos, Nick
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Springer US 01-04-2019; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Alanine; Alanine transaminase; Aspartate aminotransferase; Barium; Biochemistry; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Body weight; Cadmium; Caesium; Cesium; Cholesterol; Diseases; Evaluation; Fasting; Fatty liver; High density lipoprotein; Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry; Insulin; Insulin resistance; Iron; Life Sciences; Liver; Liver diseases; Low density lipoprotein; Mass spectrometry; Mass spectroscopy; Metabolic disorders; Metabolic syndrome; Nutrition; Oncology; Overweight; Patients; Physical activity; Plasma; Statistical analysis; Statistical methods; Statistical significance; Strontium; Thallium; Trace elements; Transaminase; Triglycerides; Ultrasound; Zinc; Plasma; Thallium; Cesium; Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD); ICP-MS; Zinc
• ISSN: 0163-4984; 1559-0720
• DOI: 10.1007/s12011-018-1432-9

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is considered as the hepatic manifestation of metabolic syndrome. Its global prevalence is estimated between 25 and 45%, occurring mainly in overweight individuals with unhealthy dietary habits and low levels of physical activity. Many studies have investigated the association of trace elements with liver diseases, though not with NAFLD. In this work, we investigated trace element levels in plasma of patients and not-patients and their possible association with various stages of the disease. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was employed for the determination of As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cs, Cu, Fe, Rb, Sr, Tl, and Zn in the plasma of 189 free-living residents of Athens, Greece, either healthy or patients with mild, moderate, or severe NAFLD. The disease was diagnosed by abdominal ultrasound; blood samples were analyzed for total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, fasting glucose, fasting insulin, and liver enzymes, namely aspartate aminotransferase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and γ-glutamyltransferase (Gamma-GT); insulin resistance was determined by the homeostatic model assessment (HOMA-IR). Zinc exhibited a statistically significant negative association with the severity of the disease, while cesium showed a statistically significant positive association. Moreover, thallium and iron were inversely associated with insulin levels. Trace element determination in plasma could be useful for establishing relationships with NAFLD status of patients. Further research is required for the verification and interpretation of these findings.