Consistent with the current report, neither liver nor adipose tissue insulin resistance was different when Hispanics were compared with Caucasians, although muscle insulin-stimulated glucose disposal was somewhat lower in Hispanics. Both groups had well matched aminotransferase AZD5363 cell line levels and the same proportion of patients with increased liver aminotransferase levels. As in previous reports,3,

5, 7, 13 liver aminotransferase levels were not sensitive enough to assist in the detection of NAFLD, as the majority of patients with NASH had normal liver enzymes. Moreover, we found no correlation between plasma AST/ALT and insulin resistance at any level (i.e., hepatic, adipose tissue, or muscle). In addition, the correlation of AST/ALT with liver fat content by MRS and the overall NAS was weak and not significant, questioning the clinical value as a test for the screening of follow-up of NASH patients. This study does have

some limitations. First, African Americans were not included. This is because the ethnic mix of the San Antonio area is 61% Hispanic, 30% Caucasian and only 9% African American and other ethnicities. Therefore, we were unable to study enough African American patients to make a conclusive assessment relative to Hispanics and Caucasians. It must also be kept in mind that the Hispanic group was largely composed of patients of Mexican American ancestry, hence the findings may not apply to other Hispanic populations. click here Future work will clarify the impact of other ethnic backgrounds in NASH. Second, although there was no major insulin sensitivity

nor were there histological differences between patients of Hispanic and Caucasian ancestry, there was a trend among Hispanics to have worse hepatic insulin resistance and for diabetics to have more severe liver fibrosis on histology. This deserves further evaluation in relation to potential pharmacological treatment response, particularly insulin sensitizers such as pioglitazone. More pronounced insulin resistance or fibrosis in Hispanics may highlight a group in need of treatment at an earlier stage, either because they may be more likely to respond to thiazolidinedione therapy or be at greater risk of liver fibrosis. learn more Pioglitazone has proven to reverse hepatic insulin resistance in previous studies from our laboratory13 and others.36 Unfortunately, the relatively small number of subjects studied in our previous proof-of-concept study (n = 55 of which 50% were Hispanic)13 and the few Hispanics enrolled in the PIVENS study (37/247 [15%])36 do not allow firm conclusions at this time. Ongoing studies will likely shed light on this issue in the future.37, 38 Third, we only reported on overweight and obese subjects with NAFLD, though they represent the vast majority of patients affected.