Original articlePancreas, biliary tract, and liverIron Deficiency in Patients With Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease Is Associated With Obesity, Female Gender, and Low Serum Hepcidin
Section snippets
Subjects
A total of 675 adult (age >18 years) subjects enrolled in NASH Clinical Research Network (CRN) studies between October 2004 and February 2008, with biopsy-proved NAFLD (defined as >5% steatosis) and serum iron studies within 6 months of the liver biopsy were studied. The NASH CRN Database and PIVENS Trial inclusion/exclusion criteria have been reported elsewhere.15, 16 Demographic information including age, gender, ethnicity, and race and a detailed medical history including comorbidities, such
Patient Characteristics
A total of 675 subjects (mean age, 48 ± 12 years) with biopsy-proved NAFLD (defined as >5% steatosis) and serum iron assessments within 6 months of their liver biopsy were evaluated in the present study. A total of 34% (231 subjects) were ID and 66% (444 subjects) were iron normal (TS ≥20%). Overall, most subjects in this study cohort were white (84%), obese (70%), and female (63%). Patient characteristics including clinical, demographic, racial, and specific dietary/behavioral factors thought
Discussion
ID is common in obese children and adults; the cause of this association is not entirely clear and has been linked to several factors.2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 In the present study we found that one-third of adult NAFLD subjects were ID as defined by TS <20%, and that female gender, obesity (BMI ≥30), type 2 diabetes, and MS were more common in this cohort. We also found that alcohol consumption is protective against ID, consistent with our previous data from a population-based study.22 Alcohol has been
Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the BRI Genotyping Core facility. They also thank Laura Wilson and Patricia Belt for assistance in preparation of the data. They thank Dr Mark Westerman at Intrinsic Life Sciences for helpful discussions.
A list of the members of the Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network can be found in the Appendix to this article.
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Conflicts of interest The authors disclose no conflicts.
Funding The Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis Clinical Research Network (NASH CRN) is supported by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (grants U01DK061718, U01DK061728, U01DK061731, U01DK061732, U01DK061734, U01DK061737, U01DK061738, U01DK061730, and U01DK061713) and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Several clinical centers use support from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences in conduct of NASH CRN Studies (grants UL1TR000439, UL1TR000077, UL1TR000436, UL1TR000150, UL1TR000424, UL1TR000006, UL1TR000448, UL1TR000040, UL1TR000100, UL1TR000004, UL1TR000423, UL1TR000058, UL1TR000067, and UL1TR000454). This work was supported in part by the Intramural Research Program of the National Cancer Institute.