Non-invasive prediction nomogram for predicting significant fibrosis in patients with metabolic-associated fatty liver disease: a cross-sectional study

This study aims to validate the efficacy of the conventional non-invasive score in predicting significant fibrosis in metabolic-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) and to develop a non-invasive prediction model for MAFLD. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 7701 participants with MAFLD from August 2018 to December 2023. All participants were divided into a training cohort and a validation cohort. The study compared different subgroups’ demographic, anthropometric, and laboratory examination indicators and conducted logistic regression analysis to assess the correlation between independent variables and liver fibrosis. Nomograms were created using the logistic regression model. The predictive values of noninvasive models and nomograms were evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and decision curve analysis (DCA). Four nomograms were developed for the quantitative analysis of significant liver fibrosis risk based on the multivariate logistic regression analysis results. The nomogram’s area under ROC curves (AUC) was 0.710, 0.714, 0.748, and 0.715 in overall MAFLD, OW-MAFLD, Lean-MAFLD, and T2DM-MAFLD, respectively. The nomogram had a higher AUC in all MAFLD participants and OW-MAFLD than the other non-invasive scores. The DCA curve showed that the net benefit of each nomogram was higher than that of APRI and FIB-4. In the validation cohort, the AUCs of the nomograms were 0.722, 0.750, 0.719, and 0.705, respectively. APRI, FIB-4, and NFS performed poorly predicting significant fibrosis in patients with MAFLD. The new model demonstrated improved diagnostic accuracy and clinical applicability in identifying significant fibrosis in MAFLD.</p

The colony appearance of <i>A</i>.<i>niger</i> after carbon ion irradiation.

<p>The colony appearance of <i>A</i>.<i>niger</i> after carbon ion irradiation.</p

Schematic representation a simplified relationship between starch degradation and citric acid accumulation in <i>A</i>.<i>niger</i>.

<p>Schematic representation a simplified relationship between starch degradation and citric acid accumulation in <i>A</i>.<i>niger</i>.</p

Determination of glucoamylase activity of original strain, mutant HW2 and mutant H4 in fermentation broth under different fermentation periods.

<p>Values are the mean ±standard deviation of four independent biological replicate experiments (n = 3).</p

Effect of different carbon source on the citric acid accumulation of the original strain, mutant HW2, and mutant H4.

<p>Error bars indicate the standard deviation of the mean (n = 3), *P<0.05, **P<0.01, compared with the original strain.</p

Enhanced Lipid Productivity and Photosynthesis Efficiency in a <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp. Mutant Induced by Heavy Carbon Ions

<div><p>The unicellular green microalga <i>Desmodesmus s</i>p. S1 can produce more than 50% total lipid of cell dry weight under high light and nitrogen-limitation conditions. After irradiation by heavy ¹²C⁶⁺ ion beam of 10, 30, 60, 90 or 120 Gy, followed by screening of resulting mutants on 24-well microplates, more than 500 mutants were obtained. One of those, named D90G-19, exhibited lipid productivity of 0.298 g L⁻¹⋅d⁻¹, 20.6% higher than wild type, likely owing to an improved maximum quantum efficiency (Fv/Fm) of photosynthesis under stress. This work demonstrated that heavy-ion irradiation combined with high-throughput screening is an effective means for trait improvement. The resulting mutant D90G-19 may be used for enhanced lipid production.</p></div

Composition of total lipid in the <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp.

a<p>Microalgae cells were harvested after grown under HL-N (300–400 µmol photons m⁻²⋅s⁻¹, nitrogen-depleted BG-11 medium with 4.25 mM NaNO₃) for 8 days. Mean ± SE with three replicates.</p>b<p>G:P: ratio of glycolipid to phospholipid.</p

Total lipid contents of <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp.

<p>WT and D90G-19 were grown under HL-N conditions (300–400 µmol photons m⁻²⋅s⁻¹, nitrogen-limited BG-11 medium with 4.25 mM NaNO₃). The total lipid of the mutant D90G-19 was significantly higher than WT at day 4 (P = 0.0051), day 6 (P = 0.006) and day 8 (P = 0.0039). D90G-19: closed square; WT: open square.</p

The consumption of NaNO₃ and growth kinetics of <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp.

<p>(A) The consumption of NaNO₃ in the nitrogen-limited (4.25 mM) BG-11 medium (closed symbols) and growth kinetics (open symbols) of <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp. S1 under low light (closed square, open triangle) and high light (closed circle, open diamond), and (B) biomass concentration of <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp. S1 wild type (WT, open square) and mutant D90G-19 (closed square) cultivated in BG-11 medium under LL+N conditions (50 µmol photons m⁻²⋅s⁻¹, BG-11 medium with 17 mM NaNO₃).</p

Starch contents of <i>Desmodesmus</i> sp. WT and D90G-19.

<p>The initial starch content was measured in algae cells grown under LL+N for 4 days. Afterwards, the cells were grown under HL-N (300–400 µmol photons m⁻²⋅s⁻¹, nitrogen-limited BG-11 medium with 4.25 mM NaNO₃). D90G-19: closed square; WT: open square.</p