1B). Importantly, serum desmosterol was significantly elevated only in individuals with NASH (P = 0.002), not in individuals with simple steatosis (P = 0.289), compared to individuals with normal liver (Fig. 1B). The ratio of serum desmosterol to serum cholesterol was also higher in subjects with NASH (P = 0.003). The results remained essentially unchanged when subjects using statins (n = 30) were excluded from find more the analysis (Supporting Fig. 1, characteristics shown in Supporting Table 3). Next

we investigated the correlation of serum desmosterol levels with specific histopathological changes. All 110 obese individuals were included in this analysis (Table 2). Serum levels of desmosterol correlated positively with steatosis (r = 0.256, P = 0.006), fibrosis (r = 0.372, P < 0.001), inflammation (r = 0.383, P < 0.001), and NAFLD activity score (r = 0.338, P < 0.001) (Table 2). see more More important, the correlation with steatosis (r = 0.288, P = 0.004), fibrosis (r = 0.283, P = 0.003), and NAFLD activity score (r = 0.323, P = 0.001) was also significant for the desmosterol/cholesterol ratio, suggesting a more specific association of desmosterol with NASH compared to serum levels of total cholesterol or other markers of cholesterol synthesis. Although we had fewer men in the study, we also analyzed the data separately in men and women. The correlation of serum desmosterol with liver inflammation

medchemexpress was significant in women (r = 0.474, P < 0.001, n = 75) and the same trend was observed in men (r = 0.289 P = 0.092, n = 35). To investigate potential mechanisms between serum desmosterol and NASH, we measured total cholesterol and desmosterol in liver tissue as well (available from 62 subjects not differing from the

total study group in age, gender distribution, and BMI, Supporting Table 4). As expected,[20] liver cholesterol correlated with steatosis (r = 0.353, P = 0.005), inflammation (r = 0.421, P = 0.001), and NAFLD activity score (r = 0.378, P = 0.002). The correlation of liver desmosterol with steatosis and inflammation was also significant, but of smaller magnitude (Table 2). Levels of serum and liver desmosterol correlated strongly (r = 0.667, P = 1 × 10−9; Fig. 2A), suggesting a shared regulation. Importantly, serum desmosterol levels correlated with liver cholesterol (r = 0.483, P = 7 × 10−5; Fig. 2B) more strongly than with serum cholesterol (r = 0.330, P = 0.009). We also investigated the relationship between serum desmosterol and the expression of selected liver genes regulating cholesterol and triglyceride metabolism (available from 80 subjects not differing from the total study group in age, gender distribution, and BMI, characteristics shown in Supporting Table 4). Serum desmosterol correlated positively with the expression of SREBP1c (r = 0.328, P = 0.003, n = 80) but not significantly with SREBP1a (r = 0.199, P = 0.076).