Expression and clinical significance of serum microRNA-122 in liver fibrosis of patients with chronic hepatitis B

Objective To evaluate the expression of serum microRNA (miRNA)-122 in patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with different stages of liver fibrosis, and to investigate its relevance with the clinical parameters. Methods Totally 138 CHB patients and 30 healthy controls were enrolled. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used to measure the relative expression of miRNA-122 in serum. Serum levels of ALT, AST, γ-glutamyl-transferase (γ-GT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP), total bilirubin (TBil), albumin, prothrombin time (PT) and HBV DNA were measured, and their correlations with serum miRNA-122 were analyzed. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC)curev analysis was performed for miRNA-122 to compare healthy controls and CHB patients with fibrosis. Non-parametric t-test was used for comparison between groups. Results The relative expressions of serum miRNA-122 in patients with CHB and healthy controls were 4.41±1.32 and 1.47±0.58, respectively, with significantly statistical difference (t=3.16, P 0.05). The area under curve (AUC) value for miRNA-122 in the differentiation between CHB patients and control group was 0.92, and the AUC for predicting significant fibrosis and cirrhosis were 0.78 and 0.81, respectively. Conclusion Serum miRNA-122 is closely related to the replication of HBV, liver damage and liver fibrosis stage. It may play a suppressive role on the HBV replication and the development of liver fibrosis. Key words: Liver cirrhosis; Hepatitis B virus; microRNA-122