Fetuin-A Can Assess the Severity of Alcohol-Related Liver Disease

Background and Objectives: Fetuin-A is mostly synthesized in the liver. It is a hepatokine, which is an extracellular inhibitor of growth factors. There is a scarcity of data on the clinical utility of serum fetuin-A (SFA) in alcohol-associated cirrhosis (AC). We first investigated the association between SFA levels and disease phenotypes in alcoholic liver disease (ALD) patients, including alcohol-associated steatotic liver (ASL) and alcohol-associated hepatitis (AH), along with AC patients. Materials and Methods: There were 26 healthy controls and 64 ALD patients in this case-control study. The severity of the disease in the AC patients was evaluated using the Child-Pugh classification (CPC-A, -B, and -C), and the FH and AC patients' Maddrey's differential function scores and the Model of End-Stage Liver Disease Sodium (MELD-Na) scores were computed. We measured SFA levels using a human fetuin-A enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Results: The SFA concentrations were lower in the AC group and higher in the ASL group [670.72 (412.36) mg/L vs. 1484.61 (858.16) mg/L, respectively; p < 0.001]. When compared to patients with ASL, the SFA levels in AC patients were noticeably lower. However, similar SFA levels were observed for the AH group and the healthy controls, as well as for the ASL group and the healthy controls. Within the AC group, the CPC-A subgroup had the highest median SFA values, while the CPC-C subgroup had the lowest median SFA value. Furthermore, the median SFA levels demonstrated significant and inverse correlations with the CPC scores and the MELD-Na scores (rho = -0.671, p < 0.001; rho = -0.742, p < 0.001, respectively). A negative correlation was observed between the SFA levels and the MELD-Na scores in the AH group (ρ = -0.621, p = 0.013). Conclusions: In ALD patients, decreased SFA levels, which exhibit disease severity, might be an auxiliary biomarker for the follow-up of AC patients.