The natural course of liver fibrosis in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and after chronic hepatitis C cure in patients with normal body weight and obesity

  • Nadiia Gavryliuk Department of Higher Nursing Education, Patient Care and Clinical Immunology, I.Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8745-7040
  • Ihor Hospodarskyy Department of Higher Nursing Education, Patient Care and Clinical Immunology, I.Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4993-1079
  • Oksana Prokopchuk Department of Higher Nursing Education, Patient Care and Clinical Immunology, I.Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2105-3617
  • Olha Kozak Department of Higher Nursing Education, Patient Care and Clinical Immunology, I.Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5089-6026
  • Lyudmyla Mazur Department of Higher Nursing Education, Patient Care and Clinical Immunology, I.Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8586-7516
  • Svitlana Danchak Department of Higher Nursing Education, Patient Care and Clinical Immunology, I.Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University, Ternopil, Ukraine https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8965-8754
Keywords: liver fibrosis, NAFLD, overweight, FibroTest, FIB-4, TGF-β1

Abstract

Liver cirrhosis and fibrosis is an increasing medical problem all over the world. Several decades ago, hepatitis C infection was the main cause of liver cirrhosis and severe liver fibrosis. After the change of antiviral treatment strategy, we have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease as the main origin factor of liver cirrhosis. After effectively eliminating hepatitis C virus, many patients still have residual post-hepatitis fibrosis. In case of accompanying non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, the natural course of liver lesion is the progress of fibrosis. The presented article highlights the main methods of post-hepatitis liver fibrosis diagnostics after curing viral hepatitis type C and in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease affected by overweight and obesity. We have evaluated fibrosis development with serum markers such as FIB-4, FibroTest and transforming growth factor β1 level. Post-hepatitis liver fibrosis status after elimination of viral hepatitis type C should be observed, especially in patients with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. FIB-4 and FibroTest correlate with each other and with biochemical liver indices and generally depend on overweight and obesity. TGF-β blood level significantly increases in case of fibrosis progression with maximum values in the group of patients with NAFLD and BMI level above 30 kg/m2 (p<0.05). In the case of liver fibrosis progression, the concentration of TGF-β1 in blood increases (r=0.78, p<0.05). It confirms the role of this cytokine in the activation of hepatic stellate cells and stimulation of the synthesis of collagen and other extracellular fibrotic components and can be a marker of NAFLD progression.

Published
2023-09-30
How to Cite
Gavryliuk, Nadiia, Ihor Hospodarskyy, Oksana Prokopchuk, Olha Kozak, Lyudmyla Mazur, and Svitlana Danchak. 2023. “The Natural Course of Liver Fibrosis in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease and After Chronic Hepatitis C Cure in Patients With Normal Body Weight and Obesity”. Romanian Journal of Diabetes Nutrition and Metabolic Diseases 30 (3), 351-56. https://rjdnmd.org/index.php/RJDNMD/article/view/1273.