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Comparative Study
. 2014 Jun;63(6):773-82.
doi: 10.1016/j.metabol.2014.03.008. Epub 2014 Mar 15.

Circulating alanine transaminase (ALT) and γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT), but not fetuin-A, are associated with metabolic risk factors, at baseline and at two-year follow-up: the prospective Cyprus Metabolism Study

Xiaowen Liu  1 , Ole-Petter R Hamnvik  2 , John P Chamberland  3 , Michael Petrou  4 , Huizhi Gong  1 , Costas A Christophi  5 , David C Christiani  6 , Stefanos N Kales  7 , Christos S Mantzoros  8
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Circulating alanine transaminase (ALT) and γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT), but not fetuin-A, are associated with metabolic risk factors, at baseline and at two-year follow-up: the prospective Cyprus Metabolism Study

Xiaowen Liu et al. Metabolism. 2014 Jun.

Abstract

Objective: To comparatively evaluate traditional liver tests and fetuin A as predictors of cardiometabolic risk, we studied associations between serum alanine transaminase (ALT), γ-glutamyl transferase (GGT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and fetuin-A and anthropometric, metabolic, and cardiovascular parameters cross-sectionally at baseline, and prospectively, after 2-years of follow-up.

Research design and methods: 616 randomly enrolled young healthy participants in the Cyprus Metabolism Study, including all 93 subjects who participated in the follow-up study 2 years after baseline assessment, were included in this study.

Results: In the cross-sectional study, serum ALT and GGT were strongly correlated with anthropometric, cardiovascular, and metabolic variables, while serum AST was only correlated with waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio. Fetuin-A was correlated with anthropometric variables, systolic blood pressure (SBP), insulin, and homeostasis model of assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in the unadjusted model. In the fully adjusted model, both serum ALT and GGT levels remained positively correlated with total and low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol. GGT levels also remained correlated with triglycerides. ALT levels remained strongly positively correlated with insulin (r=0.17, p<.0001) and HOMA-IR (r=0.16, p=0.0001). Serum fetuin-A levels were no longer significantly correlated with any variables. Prospectively, ALT and GGT were predictors of anthropometric variables and LDL cholesterol, while baseline levels of AST and fetuin-A were not predictors of any variables at 2-year follow-up.

Conclusions: We confirmed associations of ALT and GGT levels but failed to demonstrate an independent association between fetuin-A and cardiometabolic risk factors in young healthy men. Traditional liver tests (LFTs) are thus better than fetuin-A predictors of metabolic risk factors cross-sectionally and prospectively in young healthy adults.

Keywords: Insulin resistance; Metabolic syndrome; Obesity.

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Conflict of interest statement

Disclosure

The authors have no relevant conflict of interests.

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