Association of Fetuin-B with Subclinical Atherosclerosis in Obese Chinese Adults

We aimed to explore the independent associations of serum Fetuin-B and common genetic variants in FETUB locus with subclinical atherosclerosis.

A cross-sectional study of 1,140 obese adults, who underwent serum Fetuin-B testing, hepatic ultrasonography scanning, genotyping on four tagging single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in FETUB locus and atherosclerosis detection, was conducted in Xiamen, China.

Increasing tertiles of brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (ba-PWV) were significantly associated with higher prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) (48.8%, 61.5%, and 70.5% for tertiles of 1-3, respectively, p＜0.001) and serum Fetuin-B (3.85±1.39, 4.09±1.40, and 4.27±1.46 µg/ml, p=0.047). Multivariable linear regression analyses with adjustment for potential confounding factors, even NAFLD per se, showed that serum Fetuin-B were significantly and positively associated with ba-PWV, with standardized regression coefficients (β) ranging from 0.055 to 0.075 (all p-values ＜0.05) in different models. However, the significant relationship between serum Fetuin-B and ba-PWV disappeared with further adjustment for insulin resistance. Serum Fetuin-B was not significantly associated with ankle-brachial index (ABI). All genotypes of the four tested FETUB tagging SNPs were not significantly associated with either ba-PWV or ABI with adjustment for potential confounding factors.

Serum Fetuin-B was positively associated with ba-PWV and may link liver fat accumulation to subclinical atherosclerosis via insulin resistance.