Association between thyroid function and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease: a dose-response meta-analysis

Front Endocrinol (Lausanne). 2024 Jun 25:15:1399517. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2024.1399517. eCollection 2024.

Abstract

Background: Thyroid hormones (THs) have been found that it is closely associated with the onset and progression of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). However, the current study could not verify the intrinsic relationship between thyroid hormones and NAFLD, which requires further research.

Methods: The searches of studies reported both TH level in serum and NAFLD were performed in PubMed, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Embase databases. We combined an overall meta-analysis with a dose-response meta-analysis to assess the correlation and dose-response relationship between thyroid function levels and the risk of NAFLD.

Results: Overall, 10 studies were included with a total of 38,425 individuals. We found that the non-linear dose-response model showed that for every 1 ng/dL increase in FT4, the risk of NAFLD was reduced by 10.56% (p=0.003). The odds ratios (ORs) for NAFLD with high free triiodothyronine (FT3) exposure compared to those with low FT3 were 1.580 (95% CI 1.370 to 1.830, I2 = 0.0%, p<0.001) in the overall meta-analysis. The continuous variable meta-analysis indicated that individuals with high levels of TSH (SMD=1.32, 95% CI 0.660 to 1.970, p<0.001) had significantly higher levels of liver fibrosis than those with low levels.

Conclusions: Our findings only validate that there is a correlation between the occurrence of NAFLD and abnormal levels of THs, and it is expected that more observational studies will still be conducted in the future to further demonstrate the relationship between thyroid hormones and NAFLD.

Trial registration: Registered number in PROSPERO: CRD42023405052.

Keywords: dose-response; meta - analysis; nonalcoholic fatty liver disease; systematic evaluation; thyroid function.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis

MeSH terms

  • Humans
  • Non-alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease* / blood
  • Thyroid Function Tests
  • Thyroid Gland* / physiopathology
  • Thyroid Hormones / blood
  • Triiodothyronine / blood

Substances

  • Thyroid Hormones
  • Triiodothyronine

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. The study was funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and 2023 Jiangsu Province Graduate Student Practice and Innovation Program (SJCX23_0787、SJCX23_0778、SJCX23_0785), Jiangsu Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine Top Level Project(Y22002). The funding source was used for article processing charges. Beyond that, the founder of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report.