Usefulness of enhanced liver fibrosis, glycosylation isomer of Mac-2 binding protein, galectin-3, and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 for assessing liver fibrosis in chronic liver diseases

Abstract

Background: Liver biopsies have been partially replaced by noninvasive methods for assessing liver fibrosis. We explored the usefulness of four novel biomarkers, enhanced liver fibrosis (ELF), glycosylation isomer of Mac-2 binding protein (M2BPGi), galectin-3, and soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2 (sST2), in association with liver fibrosis. Methods: ELF, M2BPGi, galectin-3, and sST2 were assayed in 173 patients with chronic liver diseases. The results were analyzed according to fibrosis grade (F0/1, F2, and F3/4) by transient elastography (TE). Results: ELF, M2BPGi, galectin-3, and sST2 values differed significantly according to TE grade; ELF and M2BPGi values were higher in F2 and F3/4 than in F0/1 (P ≤ 0.001, all), sST2 values were higher in F3/4 than in F0/1 and F2 (P < 0.05), and galectin-3 values were higher in F3/4 than in F0/1 (P = 0.0036). ELF and M2BPGi showed good TE fibrosis detection performance (area under the curves [AUC], 0.841 and 0.833 for ≥ F2; and 0.837 and 0.808 for ≥ F3). The sensitivity and specificity for predicting TE grade F ≥ 2 were 84.1% and 76.7% for ELF and 63.6% and 91.5% for M2BPGi. Conclusions: This is the first study to compare the liver fibrosis assessment of four novel biomarkers: ELF, M2BPGi, galectin-3, and sST2. The biomarkers varied significantly according to TE grade, and each biomarker showed a different trend. ELF and M2BPGi seem to have comparable good performance for detecting liver fibrosis.