Alternation of plasma fatty acids composition and desaturase activities in children with liver steatosis

• Published in: PloS one 2017-07, Vol.12 (7), p.e0182277-e0182277
• Main Authors: Hua, Man-Chin, Su, Hui-Min, Yao, Tsung-Chieh, Kuo, Ming-Ling, Lai, Ming-Wei, Tsai, Ming-Han, Huang, Jing-Long
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adolescent; Anthropometry; Asthma; Biology and Life Sciences; Body mass; Body Mass Index; Care and treatment; Chemical properties; Child; Children; Coenzyme A; Correlation analysis; Correlation coefficient; Correlation coefficients; Desaturase; Eicosapentaenoic acid; Elementary school students; Enzymes; Essential fatty acids; Evaluation; Fatty Acid Desaturases - blood; Fatty acids; Fatty Acids - blood; Fatty liver; Female; Grading; Health aspects; Hepatitis; Histology; Homeostasis; Hospitals; Humans; Indexing; Insulin; Insulin Resistance; Linolenic acid; Lipogenesis; Liver; Liver diseases; Male; Medicine; Medicine and Health Sciences; Metabolic syndrome; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - blood; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - epidemiology; Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease - pathology; Obesity; Obesity - epidemiology; Palmitic acid; Palmitoleic acid; Pediatrics; People and Places; Plasma; Plasmas (physics); Quality; Rheumatology; Risk factors; Scoring; Steatosis; Studies; Ultrasound; Weight control
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0182277

The aim of this study was to investigate changes in plasma fatty acids proportions and estimated desaturase activities for variable grading of liver steatosis in children. In total, 111 schoolchildren (aged 8-18 years) were included in the analysis from March 2015 to August 2016. Anthropometric evaluation, liver ultrasound examination and scoring for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD score = 0-6), and biochemical and plasma fatty acids analysis were performed. We compared the composition ratio of fatty acids between children with high-grade liver steatosis (NAFLD score = 4-6), low-grade liver steatosis (NAFLD score = 1-3), and healthy controls (NAFLD score = 0). In addition, correlation coefficients (r) between NAFLD score, metabolic variables, and estimated activity of desaturase indices (stearoyl-coenzyme A desaturase-1 (SCD1), delta-5 and delta-6 desaturase) were calculated. Compared with healthy controls, children with liver steatosis showed a higher proportion of monounsaturated fatty acids (21.16 ± 2.81% vs. 19.68 ± 2.71%, p = 0.024). In addition, children with high- grade liver steatosis exhibited higher proportions of palmitic acid (C16:0), palmitoleic acid (C16:1n-7), dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (C20:3n-6), adrenic acid (C22:4n-6), and docosapentaenoic acid (C22:5n-6); and lower proportions of eicosapentaenoic acid (C20:5n-3) (P< 0.05). In all subjects, the NAFLD score was positively correlated with body mass index (BMI) (kg/m2) (r = 0.696), homeostasis model of assessment ratio-index (HOMA-IR) (r = 0.510), SCD1(16) (r = 0.273), and the delta-6 index (r = 0.494); and inversely associated with the delta-5 index (r = -0.443). Our current data suggested that children with liver steatosis was highly associated with obesity, and insulin resistance. In addition, increased endogenous lipogenesis through altered desaturase activity may contribute to the progression of liver steatosis in children.