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Updated: May 15, 2025

Inducing and Characterizing Vesicular Steatosis in Differentiated HepaRG Cells
Published on: July 18, 2019
High sensitivity C-reactive protein implicates heterogeneous metabolic phenotypes and severity in metabolic
Hao Wang1,2, Junzhao Ye1, Youpeng Chen2
1Department of Gastroenterology, The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, Yuexiu District, No. 58 Zhongshan II Road, Guangzhou, 510080, China.
Background:
Whether include high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (Hs-CRP) in diagnostic flow remains debatable during the updated definition to metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) despite systemic inflammation contributes to the disease development and progression. We aimed to identify values of hs-CRP compared to other inflammatory markers derived from routine blood tests in MASLD.
Materials And Methods:
This cross-sectional study included consecutive participants (ultrasound-diagnosed MASLD: 1,006, healthy controls: 582), and 175 patients received liver biopsy., with 733 and 310 patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging proton density fat fraction for liver fat content (LFC) quantification and two-dimensional shear-wave elastography liver stiffness measurements (LSM), respectively.
Results:
Multiple linear regression analysis revealed a significant positive association between hs-CRP and LFC among overweight/obesity group patients (β 0.19, P = 0.03), and LSM among lean/normal weight group (β 0.30, P < 0.001). For the metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH), the hs-CRP and the ratio of monocytes to high-density lipoprotein both performed well in the overweight/obesity group and type 2 diabetes group (Overweight/obesity group, hs-CPR AUC 0.65 and 0.74, P = 0.02), bu no valuable inflammatory indicators were observed in MASH and liver fibrosis.
Conclusion:
Hs-CRP levels are associated with LFC in overweight/obese MASLD and liver stiffness in lean MASLD patients, yet the reported AUC values suggest weak predictive ability.
Trial Registration:
The study protocol was registered at the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry, (ChiCTR-ChiCTR2000034197), approved by the First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University institutional with the regional medical ethics committees (Approval number: [2020] No. 187), and performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki. Written informed consent was obtained from all the patients.
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