Plasma PAI-1 Levels Are Increased in Patients With Nonalcoholic Steatohepatitis
- Giovanni Targher, MD12,
- Lorenzo Bertolini, MD1,
- Luca Scala, MD1,
- Luciano Zenari, MD1,
- Giuseppe Lippi, MD3,
- Massimo Franchini, MD4 and
- Guido Arcaro, MD1
- 1Division of Internal Medicine, Sacro Cuore Hospital, Negrar, Italy
- 2Section of Endocrinology, Department of Biomedical and Surgical Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- 3Section of Clinical Chemistry, Department of Biomedical and Morphological Sciences, University Hospital of Verona, Verona, Italy
- 4Service of Immunohematology and Transfusion, Civil Hospital, Verona, Italy
- Address correspondence to Dr. Giovanni Targher, Division of Internal Medicine and Diabetes Unit, Ospedale “Sacro Cuore –don Calabria”, Via Sempreboni, 5, 37024 Negrar (VR), Italy. E-mail: targher{at}sacrocuore.it
Recent data suggest that nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is linked to increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk independently of the metabolic syndrome (MetS) (1–7), although the possible molecular mediators linking NAFLD and CVD are poorly known (8).
Increased plasma plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1) concentrations, responsible for reduced fibrinolytic activity, play a key role in atherothrombosis (9). Since limited information is available about the relations among NAFLD, MetS, and PAI-1, we assessed whether PAI-1 correlates with liver histopathology among NAFLD patients independent of MetS features.
Plasma PAI-1 activity concentrations (Spectrolyse/PL; Biopool) were measured in 85 consecutive NAFLD outpatients (50/35 male/female, mean ± SD age 45 ± 2 years, and BMI …
