Performance of serum CD163 as a marker of fibrosis in patients with NAFLD

Background and aims: CD163, a surface hemoglobin-haptoglobin scavenger receptor, is expressed on macrophages and monocytes and up-regulated during macrophage activation. This study aimed to evaluate CD163 in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis patients as a diagnostic and prognostic marker in such patients. Methods: Serum samples were collected from 41 NAFLD patients and 14 healthy controls. All cases were subjected to clinical assessment, abdominal ultrasound examination, laboratory assessment including liver function and enzymes, kidney function, and lipid profile. Fib-4 and NAFLD fibrosis score were calculated for all patients. Also, serum levels of CD163 were detected by ELISA technique. Results: The present study showed that BMI, NAFLD fibrosis score (NFS), uric acid, cholesterol, and triglyceride levels were significantly elevated in the NAFLD cases compared with healthy controls (P < 0.05). The serum level of sCD163 was considerably higher in NAFLD cases (9.97 +/- 9.97 ng/ml) vs. healthy controls (1.87 +/- 0.83 ng/ml) (p < 0.001). Circulating level of sCD163 was significantly higher in the obese-diabetic subjects and diabetic non-obese patients as compared with the lean healthy subjects (11.15 +/- 7.69 ng/ml) and 11.46 +/- 13.83 ng/ml vs. 1.87 +/- 0.83 ng/ml, P < 0.05; respectively. The sensitivity and specificity of this marker was 85.4%, and 92.9 for distinguishing patients with NAFLD in obese and/or diabetic subjects from healthy controls. Conclusion: serum level of CD163 can be used as a diagnostic marker for individuals with NAFLD. However, it didn't correlate with NAFLD fibrosis score of those patients and thus couldn't predict the severity of disease. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Diabetes India.