Association between serum growth hormone levels and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a cross-sectional study

Lei Xu; Chengfu Xu; Chaohui Yu; Min Miao; Xuequn Zhang; Zhongwei Zhu; Xiaoyun Ding; Youming Li

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0044136

Association between serum growth hormone levels and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a cross-sectional study

PLoS One. 2012;7(8):e44136. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0044136. Epub 2012 Aug 31.

Authors

Lei Xu¹, Chengfu Xu, Chaohui Yu, Min Miao, Xuequn Zhang, Zhongwei Zhu, Xiaoyun Ding, Youming Li

Affiliation

¹ Department of Gastroenterology, Ningbo No. 1 Hospital, Ningbo, China.

Abstract

Growth hormone (GH) is an important regulator of metabolism and body composition. GH deficiency is associated with increased visceral body fat and other features of the metabolic syndrome. Here we performed a cross-sectional study to explore the association of GH levels with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), which is considered to be the hepatic manifestation of the metabolic syndrome. A total of 1,667 subjects were diagnosed as NAFLD according the diagnostic criteria, and 5,479 subjects were defined as the controls. The subjects with NAFLD had significantly lower levels of serum GH than the controls. Those with low GH levels had a higher prevalence of NAFLD and the metabolic syndrome. A stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that GH levels were significantly associated with the risk factor for NAFLD (OR = 0.651, 95%CI = 0.574-0.738, P<0.001). Our results showed a significant association between lower serum GH levels and NAFLD.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Adult
Case-Control Studies
China / epidemiology
Cross-Sectional Studies
Fatty Liver / blood*
Fatty Liver / complications
Fatty Liver / epidemiology
Female
Human Growth Hormone / blood*
Humans
Logistic Models
Male
Metabolic Syndrome / blood
Metabolic Syndrome / complications
Metabolic Syndrome / epidemiology
Middle Aged
Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease
Prevalence

Substances

Human Growth Hormone

Grants and funding

This study was supported by National Key Basic Research Development Program (No. 2012CB524905), National Science and Technology Support Plan Project (No. 2012BAI06B04), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31070315, No. 81100278, and No.81170378), Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China (No. Y2090463), Science Foundation of Health Bureau of Zhejiang Province (No. 2012RCA026), and Medical Science & Technology Foundation in Ningbo City (No. 2010B03). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.