Association of [1H]-MRS quantified liver fat content with glucose metabolism status

Yun-Sheng Wang; Jun Ye; Yong-Hong Cao; Rong Zhang; Xiao-Fang Han; Ling-Ling Zou; Lei Kuang; Ji Zhang; Hu Lian; Jin-Xiang Xia; Qiu Zhang; Wu Dai

doi:10.1186/s13098-020-00558-8

Association of [¹H]-MRS quantified liver fat content with glucose metabolism status

Diabetol Metab Syndr. 2020 Jun 8:12:51. doi: 10.1186/s13098-020-00558-8. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Yun-Sheng Wang¹, Jun Ye¹, Yong-Hong Cao¹, Rong Zhang¹, Xiao-Fang Han¹, Ling-Ling Zou¹, Lei Kuang¹, Ji Zhang², Hu Lian², Jin-Xiang Xia², Qiu Zhang³, Wu Dai¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Endocrinology, The Second People's Hospital of Hefei, The Affiliated Hefei Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230011 Anhui China.
² Department of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, The Second People's Hospital of Hefei, The Affiliated Hefei Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230011 Anhui China.
³ Department of Endocrinology, The First Affiliated Hospital of Anhui Medical University, Hefei, 230022 Anhui China.

Abstract

Background: Previous literatures have implied that the liver fat deposition plays a crucial role in the development and progression of insulin resistance. In the present study, we aimed to investigate the association of liver fat content (LFC) with glucose metabolism status in the population of newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes mellitus (nT2DM), prediabetes mellitus (PDM) and normal controls (NC), and assessing if the LFC could as an indicator for the prediction of T2DM.

Methods: A total of 242 subjects (including 141 nT2DM patients, 48 PDM subjects and 53 NC) were enrolled. The levels of LFC were quantified by using the proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy ([¹H]-MRS) technique. Clinical and laboratory parameters of study subjects were collected by medical records and biochemical detection. One-way ANOVA or nonparametric test (Kruskal-Wallis) was applied for intergroup comparisons; intergroup comparison was performed in using of Bonferroni multiple-significance-test correction.

Results: There were significantly increased LFC levels in nT2DM (14.72% ± 6.37%) than in PDM (9.62% ± 4.41%) and that of NC groups (5.11% ± 3.66%) (all p < 0.001). The prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) was also found to be increased in nT2DM (91.48%) than in PDM (85.41%) and that of NC (32.07%) groups. Correlation analysis revealed that the increase of LFC positively associated with fast plasma glucose (FPG), 2 h plasma glucose (PG), Delta G30 and homeostatic model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), negatively associated with Delta Ins30, Delta C30, Ins30/G30 _AUC, CP30/G30 _AUC, Ins _AUC/G _AUC, CP _AUC/G _AUC, homeostatic model assessment for β-cell function index (HOMA-β) and matsuda insulin sensitivity index (Matsuda ISI). Multilinear regression analysis showed that LFC, body mass index (BMI) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) contributed for the prediction of HOMA-IR, and total cholesterol (TC), age, waist circumference (WC) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) were the significant contributors for HOMA-β.

Conclusions: Our study revealed an increased LFC level and prevalence of NAFLD in nT2DM than in PDM and that of NC groups, the increase of LFC was closely associated with insulin resistance and impaired glucose metabolism status, may be regarded as potential indicator contributing to the development and progression of T2DM.

Keywords: Insulin resistance; Liver fat content; Magnetic resonance imaging; T2DM.