Value of serum miRNA-122 and Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2 binding protein in predicting fibrosis degree in patients with chronic viral hepatitis

Objective To investigate the clinical value of serum miRNA-122 and Wisteria floribunda agglutinin-positive Mac-2 binding protein (WFA+-M2BP) in predicting fibrosis degree in patients with chronic viral hepatitis.Methods A total of 98 patients with chronic hepatitis B (CHB group) and 104 patients with chronic hepatitis C (CHC group) , who were admitted to Hanzhong Municipal Hospital from March 2015 to June 2016 and underwent liver biopsy, were enrolled, and 56 healthy subjects were enrolled as control group.Quantitative real-time PCR was used to measure the serum level of miRNA-122 for all groups, and HISCL M2BPGi was used to measure the serum level of WFA+-M2BP.The t-test was used for comparison of continuous data between groups and the chi-square test was used for comparison of categorical data between groups.The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve was used to analyze the value of serum miRNA-122 and WFA+-M2BP in predicting fibrosis degree in patients with hepatitis, and the logistic regression model was used to perform multivariate analysis and predict probability.Results Compared with the control group, the CHB group and the CHC group had significantly higher serum levels of miRNA-122 (t = 39.437 and 11.460, P < 0.001 and P = 0.005) and WFA+-M2BP (t = 12.885 and 18.500, P = 0.004 and 0.002) .In the CHB group, the patients with S1-2 fibrosis had a significantly higher serum level of miRNA-122 than those with S3-4 fibrosis (t = 11.795, P = 0.006) .In the CHB group and the CHC group, the patients with S1-2 fibrosis and G1-2 liver inflammatory activity had a significantly lower serum level of WFA+-M2BP than those with S3-4 fibrosis (t = 8.584 and 3.565, P = 0.016 and 0.031) and G3-4 liver inflammatory activity (t = 5.568 and 3.354, P = 0.022 and 0.048) .The ROC curve analysis showed that miRNA-122 and WFA+-M2BP had a high efficiency in predicting fibrosis degree in CHB patients, while WFA+-M2BP had a high efficiency in predicting fibrosis degree in CHC patients (P < 0.05) ; miRNA-122 combined with WFA+-M2BP had a high efficiency in predicting fibrosis degree in CHB and CHC patients (area under the ROC curve > 0.9, all P = 0.001) .Conclusion Serum miRNA-122 combined with WFA+-M2BP can be used to predict fibrosis degree in both CHB and CHC patients.