Journal of leukocyte biology
-
The enhanced liver fibrosis (LFS) score and the nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) fibrosis score (NFS) are algorithmic-derived scores for diagnosing severe (F3/F4) liver fibrosis. In a pilot, substudy of the Wessex Evaluation of fatty Liver and Cardiovascular markers in NAFLD with OMacor thErapy (WELCOME) trial, we tested whether measurements of plasma platelet-, endothelial-, and leukocyte-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs) counts are (a) associated with, and predict, F3/F4 fibrosis and (b) able to improve risk prediction of F3/F4 fibrosis in NAFLD, building upon LFS or NFS algorithms. Twenty-six individuals with NAFLD had liver fibrosis severity determined by Kleiner scoring after liver biopsy. ⋯ LFS was more strongly associated with F3/F4 fibrosis than NFS (χ2= 15.403, P < 0.0001, and χ2= 6.300, P = 0.012, respectively). The association between LFS and F3/F4 fibrosis was further improved by addition of CD14+ EVs (χ2=20.847,P = 0.016 vs. χ2=12.803,P = 0.015, respectively) or CD16+ EVs (χ2=22.205,P = 0.009 vs. χ2=17.559,P = 0.001, respectively), and the area under the ROC for LFS (AUC = 0.915, se = 0.055, P = 0.001) was increased by the addition of CD14+ or CD16+ EVs (AUC = 0.948, se = 0.042, and P < 0.001 and AUC = 0.967, se = 0.055, P < 0.001, respectively) as predictor variables. In this small preliminary study, CD14+ and CD16+ EV counts show potential to predict liver fibrosis severity with either marker improving the ability of the LFS to identify F3/F4 fibrosis in this small preliminary cohort study.