Abstract:

Objective To investigate serum miR-148a expression in children with autoimmune hepatitis（AIH） and its correlation with inflammatory factors. Methods Totally，45 AIH children（AIH group） and 53 healthy subjects（healthy control group） were enrolled from Nanyang First People's Hospital from January 2018 to March 2021. Serum miR-148a，IgG and inflammatory factors [transforming growth factor-beta（TGF-β），interleukin-17（IL-17） and interleukin-23（IL-23）]，liver function [aspartate aminotransferase（AST），alanine aminotransferase（ALT） and gamma-glutamyltransferase（GGT）] and autoantibodies [anti-nuclear antibody（ANA），anti-liver cytosol type 1（LC-1） antibody，anti-smooth muscle antibody（ASMA） and anti-liver and kidney microsome（LKM） antibody] were determined. Pearson correlation analysis was used to evaluate the correlation between miR-148a levels and various indicators. Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the risk factors of AIH occurrence. Results In AIH group，the levels of serum IgG，AST，ALT，GGT，IL-17 and IL-23，the relative expression of miR-148a and the positive rates of ANA，anti-LC-1 antibody，ASMA and anti-LKM antibody were higher than those in healthy control group（P<0.001）. TGF- β was lower than that in healthy control group（P<0.05）. Pearson correlation analysis showed that miR-148a was positively correlated with IL-17，IL-23 and IgG（r=0.504，0.533 and 0.392，respectively，P<0.05），and there was a negative correlation with TGF-β（r=-0.527，P<0.05）. The positive rates of ANA，anti-LC-1 antibody，ASMA and anti-LKM antibody in miR-148a high expression group were higher than those in miR-148a low expression group（P<0.05）. Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the increased levels of IL-17，IL-23 and miR-148a and the decreased level of TGF-β were independent risk factors for AIH occurrence（P<0.05）. Conclusions Serum miR-148a in children with AIH is related to inflammatory factors and autoantibodies，which may be involved in AIH occurrence.

Key words: MiRNA-148a, Transforming growth factor-beta, Interleukin-17, Interleukin-23, Autoimmune hepatitis