Aims. Persistent hepatic necroinflammatory damage almost always results in fibrosis/cirrhosis or even hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, the presence of active necroinflammation in the liver suggests that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) patients are in urgent need of treatment. Unfortunately, alanine transaminase (ALT), a routine indicator of liver inflammatory damage, showed a poor performance in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) patients. Thus, it will be valuable to find an alternative indicator to identify patients with hepatic necroinflammatory damage. In this study, we evaluated the diagnostic value of serum Golgi protein 73 (GP73) for hepatic necroinflammatory damage in patients with NASH. Methods. The clinical data of 201 patients with NASH diagnosed by liver biopsy according to the Brunt staging system were collected retrospectively. The in situ expression of GP73 protein was measured by immunohistochemistry. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to calculate the area under the ROC curve (AUROC) of serum GP73 for diagnosing hepatic necroinflammatory damage. Results. The serum GP73 levels of NASH patients increased with the aggravation of liver necroinflammation. The median levels significantly increased from 49.98 ng/ml (31.49, 75.05) for G0-1 to 76.61 ng/ml (48.68, 110.03) for G2 and to 116.44 ng/ml (103.41, 162.17) for G3 patients (G0-1 vs. G2, ; G2 vs. G3, ). In consistent, the gradual increase of GP73 protein expression in situ was also observed in liver tissue, in parallel with the increasing severity of necroinflammatory activity. Therefore, serum GP73 correlated well with the intensity of protein expression in liver tissue. The AUROCs of serum GP73 for G2 and G3 inflammatory activity were 0.742 (0.676 to 0.801) and 0.891 (0.840 to 0.931), respectively. Conclusions. GP73 is a valuable alternative serum marker reflecting the severity of hepatic necroinflammation in NASH patients.

中文翻译：

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血清高尔基体蛋白 73 作为非酒精性脂肪性肝炎人群肝脏坏死性炎症的潜在生物标志物。

目标。持续的肝脏坏死性炎症损伤几乎总是导致纤维化/肝硬化甚至肝细胞癌。因此，肝脏中存在活动性坏死性炎症表明非酒精性脂肪肝（NAFLD）患者急需治疗。不幸的是，丙氨酸转氨酶 (ALT) 是肝脏炎症损伤的常规指标，在非酒精性脂肪性肝炎 (NASH) 患者中表现不佳。因此，寻找一种替代指标来识别肝坏死性炎症损伤的患者将是有价值的。在本研究中，我们评估了血清高尔基蛋白 73（GP73）对 NASH 患者肝脏坏死性炎症损伤的诊断价值。方法. 回顾性收集按照Brunt分期系统肝活检诊断为NASH的201例患者的临床资料。通过免疫组织化学测量GP73蛋白的原位表达。采用受试者工作特征（ROC）曲线计算血清GP73的ROC曲线下面积（AUROC），用于诊断肝脏坏死性炎症损伤。结果。NASH患者血清GP73水平随着肝脏坏死性炎症的加重而升高。中位水平从 G0-1 的 49.98 ng/ml (31.49, 75.05) 显着增加到 G2 的 76.61 ng/ml (48.68, 110.03) 和 G3 患者的 116.44 ng/ml (103.41, 162.17) (G0-1 vs .G2,; G2与. G3,）。一致地，在肝组织中也观察到原位 GP73 蛋白表达的逐渐增加，与坏死性炎症活动的严重程度增加平行。因此，血清 GP73 与肝组织中蛋白质表达的强度密切相关。血清 GP73 对 G2 和 G3 炎症活动的 AUROC 分别为 0.742（0.676 至 0.801）和 0.891（0.840 至 0.931）。结论。GP73 是一种有价值的替代血清标志物，可反映 NASH 患者肝脏坏死性炎症的严重程度。