The common adiponutrin variant as a general risk factor for hepatic fibrosis: Elastography-based study in patients with chronic liver diseases

Background and aims: Recent genome-wide scans have linked the adiponutrin gene (PNPLA3) to the severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), alcoholic liver disease (ALD) and increased serum activities of liver enzymes [1–3]. In particular, the G allele of the common PNPLA3 polymorphism I148M increases hepatic steatosis and inflammation. On the other hand, liver fibrosis results from the interaction of various environmental and genetic factors. Hence, the current study was aimed to assess the role of the adiponutrin variant as a general genetic determinant of liver fibrogenesis. Methods: We recruited 89…