Relationship between tumor necrosis fator-α and insulin resistanc in fatty liver

Objective To investigate the relationship between serum tumor necrosis fator-α(TNF-α) concentration and insulin resistance in fatty liver patients.Methods Serum TNF-α concentrations were measured by ELISA;body mass index(BMI),fasting plasma glucose(FPG),fasting serum insulin(FINS),tooal cholesterol(TC),triglycerides(TG),low-density lipoprotein(LDL-C) and high-density lipoprotein(HDL-C) were determined in 57 fatty liver patients(32 obese and 25 no-obese) and 40 normal control subjects.Homeostasis model assessment(HOMA) was applied to assess the status of insulin resistance.Results The levels of serum TNF-α,BMI,FPG,FINS,TC,TG,LDL-C,HOMA were significantly increased in the fatty liver compared with the control subjects(P0.01,P0.05).The levels of serum TNF-α and FPG,FINS,TC,TG,LDL-C,HOMA were significantly increased in fatty liver of obese and non-obese patients compared with the control subjects(P0.01,P0.05).The levels of serum TNF-α,BMI,FINS,TG and HOMA in fatty liver of obese patients were significantly highter than that of non-obese group(P0.01,P0.05).The serum TNF-α level was positively correlated with HOMA,BMI,FBG,FINS;linear multiple regression analysis showed that HOMA was positively correlated with TNF-α,FBG and TG.Conclusion The present study confirms that insulin resistance and the TNF-α level increase is uniformly present in subjects of fatty liver,even in non-obese patients.TNF-α level increasa has important roles to play in the development of insulin resistance.